The Whole is Greater Than the Sum of its Parts
April 2003
This is me at age 32, a moment before changing a diaper for first time ever.
We met our friends in Tampa on a Friday and stayed until Sunday. It was going to be my first time seeing the baby. I had all kinds of thoughts about how I was going to react when I saw them. I thought this was going to be hard because I knew in my heart that I was jealous of my friend and feeling sorry for myself because I should still be pregnant.
We were in our room when they got to the hotel. My friend knocked on the door and held the baby up to the peephole. I opened the door quickly and took her. She was the most adorable tiny little thing. For 4 months old, she was light as a feather. It was very comforting to hold her. I felt fine.
My friend made everything look so easy as she showed me how to change diapers. The baby barely made a peep all weekend. She hung tight with us while we shopped all day on Saturday. My friend breastfed in public, with ease, and I admired her. She looked so comfortable as a mother.
We were all over the mall as I was on a mission to find a dress to wear to my cousins wedding the following month. We ate at the Cheesecake Factory and my friend introduced me to the White Chocolate Mocha at Starbucks.
After my miscarriage, I joined Weight Watchers and had successfully lost 28 lbs. My friend and I were browsing through Lord & Taylor’s sales racks and she picked up a cute dress for me. The dresses were marked down 50% so this one was now $89. I was willing to pay that if I couldn’t find anything else. I looked at the size and it was an XS, so I put it back. The only other size in the same dress was a large and I knew that would be too big. I kept looking and she said, “Just go try it on.” I said, “Okay but I’ve never worn an XS in my life!”
I went in and tried on the dress and it was a perfect fit. And so cute! I didn’t realize I was that small but I also believe that wasn’t a real XS.
I hollered out to her, “IT FITS!!!”
As I was coming out of the dressing room she was pushing the stroller towards me real fast. She said, “Girl guess how much that dress is?” Before I could guess she said, “19.99!!!!” I was soooo excited and SOLD.
That’s all we could talk about for the rest of the day.
***
I found this picture in a box of misc photos that never made it to an album because I thought there was no significance to it. Then I remembered this story and pulled it from a journal entry written nearly 15 years ago (names removed).
Photos always tell a story.
This was a Share a Photo/Tell the Story Friday post. It's the Week 4 old school blogging prompt for the Finish the Sentence Friday writing community where I'm co-hosting with Kristi Campbell of Finding Ninee.