Side benefits

As many of you may know, my husband has been working everyday since Christmas. More than 15 years and it's never been like this.

My girl has always loved her daddy. I could cue a country song or a dozen.

But the benefit of my husband being away has been the strengthening of us two girls. When necessary, I will not be her friend, but her mom. But the last couple months have been a lot of companionship. Her worrying about me. Me worrying about her.

This week, we've been shopping for pointe shoes. I vaguely know they are and how beautiful a ballerina looks when on pointe. But I know exactly negative 5% about what they involve. The sewing. The lambs' wool. The ribbons.

Ballet Mobile's director and prima ballerina have been so amazing in helping us. They directed us to Dance Supplies Etc. where they spend a lot of time fitting the shoe. I think we were there for an hour today. And Ms. Susan was inspecting Lil's form in each of the shoes and for that, I could cry. They want to make sure Lil is ready for this next big step.

And the side benefit is that when Lil got into the car, she couldn't stop talking about the box, her toes and her Russian pointe shoes.

I have that amazing moment when she went on pointe indelibly printed on my brain. And in the cloud. And most importantly, in my heart.