The Baptism Dress and what is really important to my salvation.

I had in my mind a dream that most mothers do - shopping for the perfect dress with their daughter.  When you daughter is going to be baptized, you want to find the perfect white dress for her to wear before and after. 

Problem:  the Love Magnet has sensory issues when it comes to clothing.  No shiny, slippery, satin, lacy, itchy, sequins, or large seams or tags can touch her skin.  It causes her to go crazy.  She wears knits, some denim.  And as soon as she gets home from school, she changes into pajamas.

I thought that taking her to the mall to let her watch the teen girls trying on prom dresses would work.  She loved looking at the "princesses" and wanted to stay there a long time. While she watched, I pulled white dresses her size off the rack and then took her into a dressing room.

She looked at the dresses and started to shake, sweat, and cry.  I felt awful.  I tried to explain that she had an undershirt on and tights so it wouldn't touch her skin.  I couldn't even get the dress over her head.  She was inconsolable.

I gave up and took her to lunch.  During lunch she apologized profusely over not trying on the dresses and asked if we could try again.  So, after lunch I took her to another store. The same thing happened in the dressing room.  We gave up and went home.  Where I cried - I know it was selfish.  I just wanted to have that moment with my daughter.  If she ever goes to prom, I will have to pay someone to design a prom dress out of jersey knit or something equally soft.

My Twin Sis started sending suggestions and wracking her brain to figure out how to make something work.  She also reminded me that baptism dresses did not need to be white.  File the white baptism dress idea under "If it is not important to my salvation, I'm not going to worry about it."

Two days before the baptism, I found a dress.  It wasn't white.  It was gold and cream.  It was organdy on the outside, and fully lined in soft cotton on the inside.  The Love Magnet felt it before we went into the dressing room.  She made sure she had on her undershirt and sweater tights so the dress wouldn't come in contact with anything but her shoulders.  She started to panic before I slipped the dress over her head, telling me that it was going to hurt.  I reminded her that she felt that it was soft.  She then begged me to hold the dressmaker tag in my hand so it wouldn't touch her and the price tag in my other hand for the same reason.  Then we were finally able to get it over her head (with much panicking) until she realized it was going to be okay.  With her arms held out so she wouldn't touch it, she looked in the mirror.  "Mom, I look like a princess!"

She still panicked every time I put it over her head, but she acted fine after it was on.  A photog friend offered to take her picture.  A ward member with a brand new hair business made her a hair pretty and did her hair for the pictures and baptism. (picture to come as soon as photog friend sends it.)

Now the non-salvation stuff was taken care off.  On to the baptism.