It’s official.  My daughter is a celebrity.  Ok, so most people in America still don’t know her name, and wouldn’t recognize her if she walked past them on the street.  But I’m a very proud parent right now. 

After the fiasco of the casting call for Fischer Price, I wasn’t sure if I was really committed to the whole modeling thing.  I decided to see if any of the other kids got a call.  Well, last week Thursday we finally got another call.  This time it was for Deborah. 

Just a note, Deborah was the one we originally thought would do the best at the business.  We have prayed that God would make it clear whether or not to get her involved in the business and that He would close the doors of opportunity if He didn’t want us taking her down this path.  When we signed her up with the agent she warned us that we were getting into it during the slow season and that things would basically come to a standstill over the summer.  So I wasn’t expecting very many calls right away. 

Friday afternoon I loaded the kids up and drove to Miami Beach for a casting call for Play-Along toys.  This call was completely different than the last one.  This time it was Deborah who they wanted to see.  We arrived on time and signed her in.  Within a few minutes they called her name along with about 3-4 other girls.  They all did a little dance and played with some dolls and then were dismissed. 

The casting call was held in an office suite of a casting company rather than a hotel, and there were probably only about 12 other parents there.  The environment was much more calm, although there was definitely a note of tension in the air.  I can’t imagine a casting call without the anxiety of every parent wondering if their child will do well.  I forgot to bring along Deborah’s comp card and was worried that she wouldn’t get a call back simply because of that. 

I rounded up the kids and headed home thankful that it didn’t take all afternoon.  I really didn’t want to be stuck in traffic and end up late to church that night.  Then I put the whole experience out of my mind.  I knew not to expect a call for another week or so.  Unlike the previous casting the company had put down a specific call-back date on the information sheet in the office. 

Imagine my surprise when I answered the phone the following Tuesday and heard my agents voice congratulating me.  Although the casting call was for a toy ad, one of the casting directors saw Deborah’s picture and decided that she would be perfect for a role in a movie she was casting for.  She got on the phone right away to inquire if Deborah would be available for a scene.  It turns out that my little red-headed green-eyed girl was the spitting image of the principal actress in a film. 

I’ll have to continue this story in another post… more details to come.