"Forever" Friends...

I love it that God provides friends through the many times and places of my life. Many I stay in touch with and some are the kind I may only contact once a year, but it's always good to talk with them/catch up where we left off. However, some are the kind that you just know in your heart will be "forever" friends.

When I met this friend in Jr. High, I was a shy, introverted, scared to approach the world, awkward, quiet seventh grader. (Weren't we all a little awkward at that age though? haha) I knew her from church and a little from school, but we'd never actually "hung out" before. Then her mom invited me over the summer before eighth grade. She still tells me now that when they came to pick me up that day I would not say a word to them...it was like pulling teeth to make conversation! lol Little did she know I would end up being the super hyper, loud, silly, sleeping over, sugar-packet-eating-on-vacation, funny, and oh, did I say loud?, "adopted" daughter.

And if her hunch about us being friends despite my initial silent, awkward, shy, quiet, period wasn't enough to convince everyone, the fact that this friend and I were called into the hallway by our eighth grade social studies teacher to discuss our "squirrelly" behavior and a reminder to "watch our p's and q's" should have been. We were not the trouble making type, yet that day was definitely the beginning of a fun friendship!

So it continued. Through high school...with speech/debate team, various clubs, homework, dances, double dates, school plays, boy and friend drama, plus everything else that comes with high school...all the way through college in two separate states and even one semester on separate continents.

Imagine our surprise when God brought this friend back to our hometown the semester before I graduated college, then opened a teaching job for me in a town 30 minutes away...and even after she met another best friend - and they were married last year - I had the privilege of being maid of honor!

Now here we are - still talking, laughing, crying, confiding in, praying for, and being blessed together...by a lifelong "forever" friendship God has provided. And I wouldn't trade it for the world. We had the best two-hour conversation at dinner tonight, talking, laughing, and talking some more...and it seemed like no time had passed at all. We might have even giggled a little like Jr. High girls! :)

I think...no, I know - that is what a "forever" friendship feels like! I know that one day we may not live so close. And one day, like my friend, I may have another best friend to spend my life with, but we will always be friends. And I am thankful God has provided that in our lives!