June 21

Ah, recital days. The culmination of a season of dance class. I had a hard time picking an image for last year's recitals, and the same is true for today. So I'll just go with this one of Abby and I that I snapped as we headed out the door for the first show of the day:

I'm thankful that we get to do a mother/daughter dance (even if this year's incarnation did feature hip hop... yeah, not so pretty for moi). I may not be the best dancer ever, but it's fun. I like sharing dance with my girl. And I love how it makes me feel more connected to Logan.

And with that, the real stories of the day. There were two of them. The first involved Isaac. I watched his class do their teddy bear-themed tap dance from the side of the stage. At one point he looked over, saw me, smiled and waved. It melted my heart and was just an adorable expression of his purity of heart.

And the other story. It was just a moment, really, but it was such a crisp, clear, aha kind of moment that it felt like time stopped so I could soak it in. As we (Abby and Tawny, the other mom assigned to the group) waited outside with Isaac's (quite rowdy) class near the end of the third and final show this evening, I looked up just as a bunch of lost balloons --white and blue-- skipped along the ceiling of the enclosure. In that moment, all of the kid-noise faded away and I just watched them scoot along. It was probably the wind, but it made me feel like Logan was there, watching us and taking part in the only way he could.

And for those brief seconds, I'm thankful.