The Easter Dress | Previous Challenge Entry

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TITLE: The Easter Dress | Previous Challenge Entry
By Kaye Varvel
02/27/07
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I worked diligently as my three year old daughter played at my feet. Her long brown curls bounced around her shoulders as she sang and played quietly. Occasionally she would look up with her big blues eyes and ask mommy a question. Easter was approaching rapidly as I pinned together the pieces of her dress. It was the perfect dress for her, a white pinafore with pastel gingham patch appliqués of flowers, ducks and chicks hand stitched along the bottom. Hours of time went into the process so it would be ready to wear on Easter morning. It had ties at the shoulders to make it longer during the spring and summer months if she grew. It was a labor of love. I wanted her to be beautiful as she gathered Easter eggs with the other kids at church.
I had sewn quite a bit when I was in high school and before Kimmy was born, but lately it seemed more important to spend free time playing with her, reading to her, making sure my baby girl knew she was loved. This was one of those moments when I was doing something special for her. She was probably too young to realize why mommy was sewing, but I knew it was out of love for my daughter and wanting something special for her to wear. Easter had always meant a pretty new dress and a bonnet when I was growing up. I wanted her to experience the same excitement about Easter. I had also bought a pretty baby blue sweater, just in case the weather was cool. You just never know what the weather will be like in Kentucky at Easter.
Saturday night, the dress was finished! I ironed it and hung it up, ready for the morning light. I had picked matching ribbons to tie in Kimmy’s curls. New socks, her sweater all lay within arms reach. I placed candy in her basket, jelly beans, yellow marshmallow chicks, a chocolate bunny, and lots of colored plastic eggs. She was too little to color real eggs this year. We would save that for next years Easter memories.
The alarm clock woke me with a song from the radio. I picked up my sleepy eyed beauty and kissed her good morning. With her safely in her booster seat, we ate breakfast with her Daddy as we all talked about her basket of goodies the Bunny had left. Next I gave her a bath so she would be fresh and clean in her new dress. I dressed her with love and care, her hair brushed and ribbons in place. She was ready to go. As always, I took her back to her room to play, while I got ready to go. I could hear her talking to her stuffed animals as she played.
I finished my make-up, picked up Kimmy’s bag and peeked my head around the corner to tell her we were ready to go. As I caught a glance, I gasped. There she was, sitting in the middle of her bed, covered from head to toe with chocolate Easter bunny. The new dress, her face and hands were all brown and sticky. I wanted to cry, but instead I pulled another dress out of the closet, whisked her to the bathroom for a quick clean up. I changed the ribbons in her hair and took my pretty baby to church in an old dress. This was not at all what I had planned.
I was upset, but not at her. I was upset that I had made a new dress the center of attention for my daughter instead of the real reason we celebrate Easter, Jesus resurrection. That dress taught me a lot. Even though it was sewn with the labor of love, the love I should have been teaching my small child was the love of Jesus. His love for us was so great that He suffered the pain of the cross that we might live eternally with Him in Heaven.

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