'A Daughter with a Dream' Requires A Load...of Faith

My sweet belle

Much earlier this year, my sweet-teen daughter told me of a local auditioning opportunity for a pre-professional ballet program in the Big City and asked if she could attend.  She's been dancing since she could walk and dreams of nothing but ballet, so I kinda knew this day would come, but just not yet.

My heart cringed slightly before I said yes, thinking it would be a good experience overall: she could see the local pool of dancers her age, and when she was rejected, she could set her own bar higher and work towards a new goal.

So she auditioned.

She was one of four kids crammed into a packed room of more than eighty young adults for a coveted spot at the summer intensive of a highly esteemed ballet school in the Big City.  

My heart broke for her.

With poise and grace, she danced her heart with combinations well beyond her scope and left the audition hall sweaty and yet with satisfaction.  She did her best and left her dear heart on that springy dance-floor, and she knew it.  She and I were both proud of her, no matter the outcome.  And yet I was so sure I already knew the outcome...

Two weeks later, we received the brief email that would change our lives: she was accepted, and she was a scholarship recipient!  

Now the question was, could this single mother of four make this happen for her eldest blessing, the one who sacrifices much and serves much to help make this household work even somewhat on those somedays?  Could I scrape together the necessary one month's room & board from our slim pickings budget?

I was willing to pray.

I was willing to try.

There wasn't a bone in my body that wanted to say no, no matter what it cost me.

Today, we are less than two weeks away from this amazing experience that will form and shape the life of my daughter, a beautifully-spirited young lady who has a dream so much bigger than I could have ever dreamed for her.  We've purchased the horde of clothing, tights, and shoes needed.  We've a stash of hairbands and pins and spray.  We're opening checking accounts, hunkering down at the DMV for a state ID, and spending lots of mommy-girly times together, talking about the weeks away from home that are coming oh-too-soon.

Who doesn't need a little jazz in her life?

But we could use your heartfelt prayers.

You see, I'm still praying.

I'm still trying.

There isn't a bone in my body that wants to say no---not at this point.  But I'm just not sure I have all it will cost me, and I'm waiting on Him... as patiently as I can, telling myself not to panic, not to panic, n o t  t o  p a n i c.

There isn't much I wouldn't do to make this happen for her.  If there's anyone in my life that has made these past five turbulent years just a wee bitty easier for me, it's her, my sweet Deary-lou.  She's endured my moments of frustration, of defeat, of sorrow, with more grace than I have, and yet these years have cost her much too.  In the midst of her own pain, she has been my best cheerleader and encourager and supporter--and she even thinks I'm awesome.

And so I can't stop praying (Lord hear me!) or trying... to bring her one step closer to her dream, even if that step takes her far from me... for a time.

Please pray with me?