A Great Gift

Eons ago I had posted about being out shopping at the mall and overhearing a conversation between a mother and daughter shopping for a prom dress. Out of nowhere, their conversation sent me into a complete tailspin and I went in the dressing room and just cried, and I mean cried - the realization that I was never going to have that kind of conversation with Alex, shop for a prom dress, or see her walk down the aisle one day just became completely overwhelming.

While we were on vacation, we were sitting outside on the deck and Jennifer came and sat down next to me and said, "so, what's up?" I immediately thought, Uh-oh, Jennifer's about to give me some bad news and really thought she was going to tell me she had to quit or had some other nightmarish news for me! Instead she said to me: "You know Beans is like one of my best friends, right? I don't want to stress you out (this is when panic completely seized me!) but I really can't imagine walking down the aisle and not having Beans be a part of my wedding day and I would really love it if she can be a Junior Bridesmaid". I have to say, I completely lost it and cried - really cried again! I cannot tell you what a gift Jennifer gave me, possibly the very best gift I have ever received - I have no words to describe how that one question just completely touched me to my core. So thanks to Jennifer, I WILL get to go dress shopping WITH Alex and in a different way, I WILL get to see Alex walk (or wheel - but Aaron's determined to have her walk!) down the aisle of a church - and that is a gift that you couldn't possibly put a price tag on.

We went with Jennifer to pick up her dress (the wedding is next year) and got a sneak preview of her when she tried it on. We were playing around with veils and stuck one on Alex...

I have the BEST picture of Jennifer and Alex together, but since Jennifer's wearing her dress in the picture, I'll have to save it until after the wedding!

I think Alex enjoyed being involved in the "girly" events of the day!