Her Daddy, Her Hero

Rich and Ellen are out on a 'date' tonight - dinner and the annual Legacy Father-Daughter dance. To say that Ellen has been excited for this evening would be a large understatement. In fact, she had to put her spelling word 'waiting' into a sentence today in her schoolwork. "I have been WAITING all day for the Father-Daughter dance to get here!"

This is Ellen's 6th F/D dance and her final year to have Daddy all to herself. Rebekah is eagerly anticipating her 4th birthday and her chance to attend the annual princess event. Ellen has mixed feelings about Rebekah joining them. She loves to be a big sister and show her little sis the ropes, but she also loves her quality alone time with Daddy.

Quality time is Ellen's primary love language and mine, too. Don't buy us anything, just spend time with us and we feel loved. I have loved the walks that Ellen and I have begun to take around the neighborhood together. We talk, talk, talk. It's not that we're completely alone - the little girls are in the stroller and the boys on their bikes, but we're still side by side chatting. The weather has been beautiful this past week - mid-70's and sunny. Spring is in the air and I love it! (I belong at the equator, remember?) So Ellen and I have had a chance for a few walks recently.

I thought I'd share a snippet of our conversation yesterday. It went something like this:

Ellen: Mom, do you think God wants me to get married someday?

Me: I'm not sure, sweetie. But whatever His plan for you - it'll be perfect. Why don't you start praying for God to prepare you for the plan He has for you as you get older. I once heard a story of a woman who started to pray for her future husband when she was about 13 years old. Later in life she found out that her husband came to Christ about the time she started to pray for him.

Ellen: That's so cool. I want my husband to be just like Daddy. I want him to look like Daddy, talk like Daddy, be funny just like Daddy. Daddy is perfect.

Me: (Through my tears) Yes, he is.

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Below are pics of Rich and Ellen through the years for the traditional front porch sending off shot. The first F/D dance in 2004 was pre-digital camera for us. I'm sure I have a photo album with the picture around here somewhere...

2005 (age 6)

2006 (age 7)

2007 (age 8)

2008 (age 9)

2009 (age 10)