When we moved to Wake Forest, we didn' t know a soul, or so we thought. Not long after we moved, we connected with a family we met at preview day in November of 2011. We have spent many late evenings at their house, enjoying homemade pizza and the laughter of their sweet children.
In addition to making friends, Aaron and I were also in search of a church to join. Several churches had been recommended to us, so we did our research and decided to try them out for a month. We tried one church and while we loved what what we being taught, Aaron and I simply weren't connecting with anyone there. Enter the Women's Life Office at Southeastern, I had to turn in my application so that I could take classes in the fall and there sitting at the desk was a friendly face from the University of Mobile. While I didn't actually know the Harpers, Aaron did, so when they invited us to come to church with them, we said why not, at least we will know someone there. The rest is history. We have very quickly become involved at The Summit and have made loads of new friends. Small Groups are one way that you actually get to know people at The Summit. Meeting weekly to spend quality time in the Word, praying together, or sharing a meal are just some of the ways our small group has bonded. From our small group more fabulous friendships were made. Aaron has guys he can talk mountain biking and BBQ with and I have ladies who I could share my teaching woes with as well as my love for Pinterest. It is such a blessing to meet with these Godly men and women weekly, to discuss struggles, triumphs, and best of all pray for each other.
While we were making all of these new friends in Wake Forest, Aaron and I also had friends from home, college, and our childhood that we continued to stay in contact with. Weekly, Aaron gets a phone call from Brad, asking how school is, chatting about this type of bike, how long someone has ridden, how hard the workout has been, Alabama Football, or whatever else comes to mind. How grateful I am that this friendship continues despite the many miles apart they are. We are looking forward to spending time with this sweet family during our trek to Alabama and the during 1/2 Iron Man the guys are going to be competing in in September.
Over the past year I have had FIVE friends who have had babies, two out of the five having their first. There were several times during the year when I wanted to hop on a plane (for those of you that know me, this is huge, but I knew I could get their quicker by plane and I really hate being in car) and just be there with my sweet friends. How I longed to chat with Rebekah while sitting in the hospital room, waiting on her precious baby boy to get big enough to come home. Happy to say he is home and thriving, looking forward to the day when I meet sweet Benjamin. Trying to hold in the excitement all day as I received a text telling me Blair had had her twin baby boys, only to have the wind knocked out of me the next day when I got a text telling me Brantley had not made it through the night. I struggled with the right words to say, what to do in the situation, and really how to react. I once again was willing to pay whatever price to fly to Texas and just be there. However, in both situations my place was to stay in Wake Forest and PRAY!!! And pray I did, I am so glad that God used my friends to bring me closer to Him, it has been an amazing journey.
Now I begin the process of watching a friend and her family, who I have grown to love so much over the past year, pack up their belongings and move across the world to minister to the people in Europe. While I have accepted the fact that she won't be just up the street, the miles and ocean between us won't keep our friendship from growing. I mean with technology today, I can still actually see her, how amazing is that! I am looking forward to all the memories that are still left to be made in the week and a half before they leave as well as the memories yet to be made.
I am so blessed by the friends in my life.
Friend, your blog post's are making me tear up!
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