My Girls

16 years ago this September, I drove up a steep road in Estes Park, Colorado and I was totally freaked out. Due to all my other plans being totally wiped out like a sandcastle at high tide, I was going to spend roughly eight months in the Rocky Mountains at a Bible school. This is where I learned to stop saying "I will never." Like "I will never live outside of California" or "I will never go to a Christian school". The list continues but those were the first two. I didn't want to be there. Yet I knew I needed to be there. Long story short my life was flipped over and met my husband and I made the kind of friends that you dream about. We saw each other here and there, at weddings and when passing through the other respective state but life was moving on. Then one of us was hurting. Like gauze to a wound we gathered around her and each other to heal hearts and reforge our friendship tattered by distance. We decided then and there to not let crisis be the only reason see each other and agreed to get together once a year while taking turns at the hostess role. Somehow through all of our moving and grad school and babies we managed to do it even though we took a few years off. I amazed that we've been able to not only maintain but grow in our relationship mostly through email (over 1000, no exaggeration) and an occasional phone call.  These women are a gift, a balm to my soul and a joy in my life. They stretch and challenge me as well as encourage and love me.  Thank you ladies for staying in my life and for coming to me this year. xxoo

Dream sharing, coffee loving, hugs, favorite things exchange,  Internet video watching, and pretty mugs.

Reunion meal, great conversation, prime rib dinner, and Spangler brothers.

Suzanne, Tina, Me, Elicia, Laurie

*For the record that year in Colorado was full of amazing women. I can honestly say that each one touched my life in one way or another and ultimately for a good. I wish I could see more of my RC girls more often!