The Spice of Life

Friendship. I consider it to be one of God's dearest treasures. Friends of ours who haven't been over for about a year came over last week. It was nice to laugh our faces off with them. It was also nice to have that connection that you don't have with just anyone. The kind of connection that you could just talk for hours and hours even though you've lived in a different country for a year. There was a time in our marriage that Matt and I didn't have any real close friends (outside of family). We prayed about it, and now we are blessed to have what I consider to be a greater amount of friends than I would have thought to be possible. They are people who I feel fiercly loyal to and I would do anything for. Some don't live here anymore but I couldn't imagine my life without them. They are genuine. They've sat with me in the hospital, and called me daily to see how I was doing. They love my kids and have been such a positive example in their lives. They know our faults but love us anyways. I really think I do know some of the world's greatest people. Thanks again guys for making life so full of joy!

Sending another one off

In life there are so many stages. I guess our outlook on life determines how we accept these stages. I've given much thought about these "stages of life". I think of graduations, weddings, collage and many other events. When you are as sentimental (or just mental) as I am. the fact that I have three kids make these events seem emotional.
I thought that sending my 2nd kid off to school would be easier than the first. I ended up failing miserably in this department. Today was Hannah's TRIAL day. It wasn't even her 1st day at all!!! I just didn't expect her to be asking me to stay for the morning or trembling when I dropped her off at the classroom. Now don't worry, I wasn't one of those crazy moms who sit there and make it hard on the child to go in. I would've got a medal if you saw how brave I was. The stupid part came a moment later. I saw Danielle standing ouside of her classroom and crouched down to remind her to be helpful to Hannah if she saw her. I couldn't hold it together any longer and my eyes filled up with tears. Guess what happened next? Danielle started crying . I felt like an idiot. I managed to be tough for Hannah only to make my other daughter cry in front of her peers. I'm sure our family will have many laughs over this in the future.:D
Now back to what I started with. Hannah starting school is another stage in our family's life. I actually look forward to all the stages. (even the weddings, sniff, sniff) I'm not against feeling the emotions though. I just think you can hold your children back if you don't have the confidence to let them go and leave them in the Lord's hands. I've talked to too many collage students who talk about how ther parents can't let them go, and how guilty the students feel moving forward with their "own" lives. Interestly enough, these seem like the kids who advoid going home for another guilt trip. I plan to embrace these seasons of life . I'll shed many tears along the way for certain. But that's okay! By the way, when I returned to get Hannah, she didn't want to leave! But that's okay!