Friendship

I've been putting this post together in my head for the past several days and just need to get to it...so here I go. It's random how I've come to wanting to write about this, but it will all come together, so stay with me.

This past week has felt very stressful to me. I think there were a few underlying reasons, and then added ones, too.

We learned two weeks ago that our offer on a new house was accepted! It's a house, and neighborhood, that we've been keeping an eye on for several months now, waiting for the right time to possibly place an offer. It's a bit surreal, but after a week of back and forth between our realtor and the builder, they accepted our offer! So, we'll be closing in the next couple of weeks and listing our house on the market. We won't move likely for a few months, until our house sells. It's all working out quite well, as the builder will be renting from us while he builds his next house. So, with the new home comes extreme excitement thinking of this next phase in our future. It's a beautiful, newly constructed craftsman style ranch with everything we're looking for, including a wonderful neighborhood with close proximity to our favorite park. It's also creating some anxiety - just the thought of the busyness that buying and selling a home brings - packing, moving, a larger mortgage payment, though this is what we've been saving for and working toward - it's all a bit overwhelming to think about at times.

All week, I've been thinking of Grace and the nine month milestone we passed on Friday. I'll frequently check back on the blog to when Gavin was the age that Grace would have been. It was emotional looking back on nine months. It was just after Gavin turned nine months that he started crawling. And he was eating finger foods. And easily maneuvering into a sitting position on his own. Grace would have likely been doing all of those same things...in cute little pink outfits with bows in her hair. On Friday, I had to travel to Detroit for the Michigan Pharmacists Association annual convention - for some CE and also to deliver a presentation. The weather was horrid on Friday morning, so the very long drive and day added some extra stress.

So, back to the title of the post...friendship. Amid the stress, I've come to a deeper realization this week and really over the past year that friends are such a blessing. I've been getting together with a group of high school friends about monthly for the past year or so for dinner. I was reflecting on my drive on Friday about all of them, and certainly other friends, and all that we've been through in the past couple of years. I think getting together with this particular group of gals brings such great comfort, as they can relate to the pain I've experienced in life, my grief and my struggles to "keep going" even when I just don't feel like it. They've been there, too. I'm not sure how among the eight of us, we've all had such hard lessons in life at such a young age.

What brought us all back together a couple of years ago or so was one of our friends who's husband was ill with terminal cancer. Not even thirty yet, and just a dreadful diagnosis and courageous fight for life. Ben's passing hit home for all of us - it could have been any of our husbands who we lost...just when we needed him most, just when our lives together were really getting started. Lindsay is one of the strongest people I know, even though she would never admit it. The rest of the group - there's me, and all of my baggage from the past year, and others who are struggling with other significant life events - an ill parent who's too young to go, fighting against the odds like Brad's dad (stupid, retched cancer), miscarriage, divorce, and most recently a wife who walks hand and hand with her husband as he seeks sobriety and seeing the world in a whole new light.

None of us ever imagined in our care-free days as friends in high school that God would call us to travel these journeys. None of us, as we wed our husbands, would have REALLY taken to heart the vow in "good times and in bad". Life is good, right? Everything is going to be a fairytale. And here we are, at times wishing the world would just stop turning, trying to manage through these very real, not so great experiences. Being strong women. Keeping our families going.

I've really enjoyed having these friends...and so many more than just this group of eight. My support system of family, co-workers and friends are such a blessing. So much so, that I just really wanted to blog about them. To document this point in my life where I can really say it's been nice to have them through the bad times - and the good times. We do a lot of laughing when we're together which is so therapeutic, thanks for that ladies. And here's to hoping that the crappy life events subside a bit and we can regain some normalcy. It would be nice if life was a little more boring at times, huh?

Cheers to good friends!