Special friendships

Ever have one of those friends that you have been friends with your entire life? One that you could literally tell ANYTHING to and never have the fear of being judged or laughed at? (Well, laughed at in a mean way!!) I do. When I was born my daddy was pastoring a church in Statesboro, GA. There was a super sweet, super special family that were members of that church at the time, the Tyson's, and they just happened to have a little girl named Emily that was my age. I don't remember a whole lot about our time in Statesboro (I don't have as good a memory has my sister!) but I do remember playing with Emily after church! Right after I turned 4, Cool Springs PB Church called my dad and we moved a couple hours away. But Emily and I stayed friends. Thru the years we became pen pals (yes, people did actually use to use the hand written word to communicate) and visited each other during the Holidays and Summertime's. Okay, she mostly visited me because I would get a slight case of homesickness when I had to spend the night away from home! Emily on the other hand WANTED to be away from home; she had 3 brothers to contend with and they knew the meaning of being good brothers, hehe!!

Thru out high school it was so great to have a friend that lived 100 or so miles away so that you could tell secrets to someone with out fear of it getting back to the person you told on! We know things about each other that, well, lets just say I hope I'm always on her good side and I'm sure she feels the same way about me! We saw each other thru the awkward years, the rough college years, and a stream of ridiculously bad relationships mixed in between! She was a bridesmaid in my wedding 7 years ago and I was the worlds largest bridesmaid in her wedding 3 years ago!! (My husband was the officiator in her wedding which made it extra special!) She and her husband, Eric, moved to Brasil 2 days after James and Audrey were born and they had their first child, Gabriela, 13 months ago while they were in Brasil but we kept in touch thru blogs and emails. They moved back to the states in December of '09 but, back to Iowa so she may as well still be in Brasil!!

But, last Thursday Emily, Eric and Gabriela came for a visit and to spend the night! They had been visiting Em's brother in Tifton and came on over our way. I was SO excited to get to finally see Gabriella in person. I had seen quite enough pictures of that little doll face; it was high time I got some in person smiles from her!

She's just as adorable in person, if not more. And she is such a happy, content child! She's just started walking but that didn't stop her from following James and Audrey every where they went. It was so much fun to watch our children play together. I just wish we were closer so they could play together all the time. But maybe Audrey and Gabriela will become pen pals one day.......if pens and stamps still exist by the time they are old enough!

Emily and Eric are expecting another little girl in just about 2 months. God bless their souls, it's gonna be a different ball game with two around so close in age (like I would know or anything!) but hopefully the 2nd will be just as compliant as the first! It was such a special treat to have the Zieser's here in our home and I wish it could of lasted longer and I wish they lived closer but at least her entire family lives in Georgia so she will be coming with in reasonable driving distance of me a few times a year!!