Believe in Your Children's Dreams

A few years ago, when my son had just turned 5, we headed to a small town parade in Idaho and to reunite with some family. When I told my son we were going to a parade, he said, "I want to be in the parade." This actually isn't a strange request. Since it's such a small town, almost every year, at least one member of our family is involved and each of my grandfathers have been the Grand Marshal.

I asked my mom and she said that she hadn't heard of anyone in our family being involved in a float. I told Dylan that he wouldn't be able to be in the parade. Anytime we would talk about it, however, he would tell me that he was going to be in the parade. I let it go and as we were driving up, I tried to figure out how I was going to console him when this didn't happen.

Thirty minutes before the start of the parade, our family was all gathered together and one of my aunts who lives in this town came over and said they had a float and they were looking for someone else to be on it. My mom immediately called me over and we asked her if she was looking for an adult or child and she said either one. We asked if Dylan could be on it and she said yes. So they took off to get on the float. He looked scared to death when he came by, but afterwards told me he had a lot of fun!

I was humbled that day as I saw a 5-year-old boy's dream come true in spite of my trying to squelch it. Now when he tells me he wants something or is going to do something, I believe him and am excited to see how it will turn out!