Lucy’s First Dance! – MORP

Well, the long awaited and much hand-wrung-over high school dance has come and gone for Lucy.

I talked about some of our emotions swirling around when I posted about her “day date” which happened a couple weeks before. But here we go on the real-deal dance.

MORP is a casual, fun, girls’ choice dance. So after pondering and thinking about dances and all the hoopla that surrounds them for a LONG time, Lucy decided it was time. She asked this nice boy and got answered (a story in and of itself), and we started getting prepared.

The MORP “theme” this year

There is a different “theme” for MORP each year. This year it was “Rhyme Without Reason” and the kids came up with some pretty creative ideas for those rhymes. After lots of deliberation, Lucy decided she and her date should be “Wild West” and “Under Arrest.” She would be the “wild west” part and her date could be “under arrest.”

This “outfit” thing is an adventure in and of itself when you have a girl with sensory issues. It took a lot for Lucy to decide how dressed up to be.

But I let her take the lead since I know from experience it would be futile to push with this strong-willed girl. Ha! It’s amazing what peer pressure can do, because on the dance night she emerged like this:

I know I’m biased but are you kidding me? I love her that girl. And oh how I love that smile!!

I still cannot, beyond my wildest dreams, believe that Lucy actually wore JEANS (she’s never worn those before) AND cowboy boots. Even a cowboy hat? Unheard of. No one will ever know what it took to get to that point for this girl. Aside from the emotions there was the scratchy-ness. The stubbornness. Squishing those feet into those boots with grocery bags to help them slip right in. The learning of how to button the jeans was even a big deal, for crying out loud. There are so many little things that go into these big things.

I tried to sweet-talk Lu to let me do something a little more fancy with her hair than her every-day braid she always insists on, but also just remembered she was already way out of her comfort zone. She ended up wanting a “three-braid” braid, which is at least something!

As we prepared together, there was a beautiful settling into a contrite spirit for both of us, each of us helping to calm the other. Dave was sadly out of town for all this, but there was something good for just the two of us to be in this wrestle of love together. I am so proud of her.

As we stood in the back yard taking pictures before she left, her cautiously very excited even willing to be posing for me, I said a silent prayer of gratitude. For this girl and for everything we are learning. And for this boy who I knew would be her patient and kind date. God is good. I hope she feels it too.

I’m not sure how the actual “date” went, but Lucy came home smiling. I had been pretty worried about how it would all go down, especially since Lu was on the tail-end of a string of late nights and early mornings to catch up on some re-takes and tutoring at school, as well as a church overnight. Lack of sleep is tricky for this girl. But I did get the chance to talk to her cute date as they were taking pictures before taking off. I think he could sense my concern, and told me he was excited and not to worry at all. Makes me cry to think of even now a couple days later.

“Wild West and Under Arrest”

The girls:

The boys:

The whole group:

“Rhyme Without Reason” dance dress-up ideas:

There were some pretty creative “Rhyme without Reason” costumes. Some that I can remember:

• Rapper & Napper (Or PJ & DJ)
• Mary and Dairy
• Myley Cyrus & Corona Virus
• Slim Shady & Tom Brady
• Sugar Dady & Golf Caddy
• Harry & Fairy
• Aquamarine & Wolverine
• Booker & Cooker

Teenagers are fun.

We survived!

The bottom line is that we all survived. Lucy, her friend who took her under her wing, her date, and her mom:) Who knows if this was her one and only dance or if she’ll decide to brave it again?

But I’m just so happy for her that she can now relate when everyone is talking about dances. So glad for experiences to help us learn and grow. For Lucy’s determination to make it happen. And for all the good people who help along the way.