Thursday, January 03, 2008 - Posts

[OT] Daddy's Little Girl

Today at 4:45PM EST my daughter is getting married.

Her fiance is in the Army and will fly to Frankfurt, Germany for assignment as a Combat Engineer. They're getting married today so she can join him on base in Germany as soon as he arranges housing for the two of them. The big wedding she's always wanted will wait until next year, when they'd planned it originally, but unless they're married she can't join him. So my beautiful darling baby girl is getting married today.

I wish them the best of luck together. He's a good kid, and they adore each other.

While she was growing up I watched her in all her various activities. She was in gymnastics for a while, and Girl Scouts, and Rec Center Basketball, and something called "Odyssey of the Mind" - a kind of creative, problem-solving, improvisational competition they had for kids from about 8 to 16 years old. She would remind me of her mother in many ways, of me in many others (very scary), yet has always been a unique and wonderful individual herself.

When she was in Fifth and Sixth grades she took an interest in the special needs kids in her school, and gave up her recess time to help out in their classroom. She earned an award as the VFW's State of Ohio Volunteer of the Year when she was in middle school for the work she did. In High School she was active in Band, Orchestra, Theatre, National Honor Society, and other groups I don't remember now.

She went to college to study Special Education, never having lost that love for working with special needs kids. While in college she joined Phi Mu Sorority and actively participated in the Dance Marathon every year, which raises thousands of dollars for the Children's Miracle Network. She graduated last May with a Bachelor's Degree in Education. She's been working as a substitute this year, while her fiance was in Basic Training.

And today she's getting married, and I want to cry. I'm so proud of her.

I hope you all, like her mother and me, wish them the best for the future.

Allen




Cross-posted from SQLBlog! - http://www.sqlblog.com