A girl who wanted a particular dress for her eighth-grade dance let her parents know, but it came with an expensive price tag that her struggling parents could not afford. This is the story of how her father pushed himself so that he could put a smile on her face, showing the world how satisfying it is to make one’s child’s dream a reality.

Nevaeha Smith went window shopping for a dress she would wear to her eighth-grade dance at Ringgold Middle School in Monongahela, Pennsylvania, in 2018. She had hoped to find something her parents could easily afford. The dress that drew her eyes came with a $200 price tag. It made her uneasy, but in faith, she revealed her desire to her parents!

Nevaeha’s father, Ricky Smith, was an average man who worked at McDonald’s, Popeye’s, and a Circle K convenience store in Monongahela, Pennsylvania but still had problems making ends meet. That’s why he was a bit reluctant to indulge his daughter when she came home to tell him and his wife that she had found the perfect dress to wear for her 8th-grade graduation and that it was worth $200.

“Mom, Dad, I want this dress. Is it in our price range?” she asked. Smith’s heart sunk at the price because he was well aware of his own limitations, but he told her, “Uh, not really sure, but I can see what I can do.”A practical man who knew how easy it could be to disappoint given his station in life, Smith made no promises to his daughter; however, he worked hard toward saving up for the dress anyway.

He already worked six days a week but started taking extra shifts at his three jobs. He would even go as far as working seven days per week, sacrificing his personal well-being and risking burnout to get enough money to buy the two-piece floral dress. His hard work paid off in the end, and he could purchase the exact dress his daughter had pointed to,

but the first person he told was his wife, Kelly Anne, who urged him to surprise the girl with it. She told him, “Why don’t you surprise her?” Smith decided to take his wife’s advice, but he took it one step further by asking his daughter to stop by his workplace at McDonald’s. Her mother joined the unsuspecting child with a camera, ready to document the revelation. He told ABC News:

“I was working at McDonald’s that day and I put the dress in the back.” When Nevaeha and her mother arrived, Smith brought out the dress, cloaked within a garment bag, and told her that her grandmother had purchased it for her. “This ain’t the dress you wanted, but I hope you like it,” he said. Nevaeh’s heart had sunk when she heard that her granny had purchased the dress because she thought she was about to get an “old lady dress.”

Her father admitted that it was not the dress she desired, which made matters worse. The footage her mother shot showed Nevaeha sitting at a McDonald’s table while her father approached her with the garment bag. Despite the fact that the video captured her reaction, one can only imagine how she felt when her father slowly unzipped the purple bag and slid one flap aside to show her dream garment.

It took a few moments for the astonished Nevaeha to recover from her shock, but once she did, she leapt from her chair and dashed into her father’s arms, clutching him as hard as she could with tears flowing down her cheeks. Smith stated: “The expression on her face was priceless. All I could do was smile.

“The video, which quickly went viral, captured Neveaha’s emotional face as she sought to express her gratitude to her father. “It’s the dress!” she exclaimed. Later, she described the experience, saying, “My heart felt like there was more love in it than there was before, I love him, and I’m incredibly pleased that he’s my father.”

She attended her dance in the dress she would always treasure because it signified her father’s love, thanks to his sacrifices. Smith demonstrated that a father’s love for his child is selfless and without limits, something his daughter will never forget. Did you enjoy the video? If so, please share this tale with all the committed and selfless parents you know.