“Which one of us is your favorite?” I can’t count the number of times my kids have asked me that very question. I don’t have a favorite. They are each so special in their own way. My son is the only boy and my first born. He will always have that special spot in my heart, as he is the one that first made me a mother. My daughter, Faith, was my first girl. Before her, I’d dreamed of a girl. I call her my dream come true. The littlest, Grace, was the best surprise of my life. I tell her all the time.
My “dream come true” is about to graduate high school. My mind knows it, but my heart can’t comprehend. I’ve reminisced over this past year as I’ve gone through pictures and walked through all the senior year stuff. When Colin and Faith were little and Grace was yet to pop on the scene, we went to Disney World. Three-year-old Faith loved meeting the princesses and riding the teacups. I can still see her spinning and spinning in her Minnie Mouse dress with sparkly red shoes. At the end of our first night in Magic Kingdom, we crowded near Cinderella’s Castle to get a good view of the fireworks show.
We stood in amazement as booms and crackles sounded all around us. Colin and Faith never took their eyes off the sky, but I could barely take my eyes off them. Faith’s eyes sparkled and her mouth made a perfect “O” shape. I don’t think she said a word or even breathed. As the show came to an end, the words to “When you wish upon a star…” drifted down to us. Faith turned slowly to look in my eyes, her face in complete shock.
“Mama,” she said breathlessly. “My dream came true to me. I wished for fireworks, and my dream came true to me.”
Over the past eighteen years, I have watched my daughter grow – grow in height, in beauty, in knowledge, and in spiritual depth. I’ve watched her struggle. I have seen her in pain. She has fallen down, and she has gotten back up again. My shy little lap girl has stretched her legs and blossomed into someone more beautiful than I could have ever imagined. I never knew how deep a friendship my daughter and I would develop. I never knew how much she could make me laugh – laugh at her, laugh at myself, laugh at the world.
And tonight, as my daughter walks across that stage, I’ll whisper those words she said to me so many year ago. “My dream came true to me.” Faith, you are a mama’s dream come true.
