I hope you dance….

I love that Lily Wen loves to dance. It reminds me of being little and putting on my tutu and heading to Mrs. Trudy’s dance class. I have so many fond memories of my dance recitals. I think there is a freedom that is born in the hearts of those who dance. We dance a lot around our house and if the neighbors look in the windows, well what a show they would see. There is just something about feeling the music in your whole body and just having to move as a response.

Dancing is also a way of working through emotions. I can always lift their spirits by putting on a favorite song and dancing silly with them. Sometimes we learn things through dance that we never expected. I recently learned some new things about my daughter.

You see, I was not able to take her to dance class this spring because of a demanding work schedule. I was blessed that her best friend Lily’s parents, John and Heather, were able to take her to the classes so she could still participate. I don’t know what I would have done without them. One evening, I was picking Lily Wen up from their house when Heather called me inside. They had gotten the list of songs they would dance to at the spring recital that is a Broadway Review. Lily Wen would be a mermaid from Little Mermaid, a munchkin in the Wizard of Oz (she would never admit to being a munchkin..the size thing again and would only own up to being a flower) and an orphan in a group of songs from Annie. It was the last dance that made my heart skip a beat. It just hit a little too close to home as Heather knew it would. I stood there and thought, should I pull her from this one? Heather hugged me and gave me the best advice when she told me to pray about it. Then, she lovingly loaned me the movie “just in case” we wanted to watch it.

Even though I love the musical Annie, I had never watched the movie with Lily Wen. I thought she needed to be older to be exposed to Annie’s story especially with all that has gone on in our lives in the last year. I talked to Lily Wen about the movie and explained a little of what it was about and we decided to watch it together. Lily Wen watched the movie at least 4 more times that first weekend. Sunday evening the questions came pouring out of her. She wanted to hear her story again and how we became a family. She wanted to know all she could about her birth family. She wondered aloud if they had “died in a fire, like Annie’s”. I held her and explained that we would not know what or why or how her birth family was until we could one day meet them in Heaven. Who would have thought that one dance would lead to so many amazing and heart-felt discussions.

Fast forward six weeks and I am sitting in a dim auditorium watching Lily Wen perform the dance for my first time. I am glad that I was able to see the rehearsal because tears just poured from eyes as I watched her and listened to the music. I thought about the first pictures that I ever saw of her at her orphanage and how sick she was when she was first placed in my arms. She was so teeny tiny and weighed only 13 pounds at 10 months. So many memories and images of those first precious days with her flashed through my mind as I watched her dance. Then, I saw her as she is now and she is AMAZING and RESILIENT. She is LOVING, SWEET and MY DAUGHTER. LILY WEN is a DANCER!

“And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance, I hope you dance.”