The Sweetest Weekend

Friendship is a really sweet gift.  

I think the older I get and the longer I remain single the more I realize how blessed I've been with really sweet friendships over the years.  It's always been easy for me to make friends and with each season and place I have lived the Lord has provided people to share life with.  I'm learning that friendship look different as seasons change and when miles are between, but also learning to embrace the change and the differences and to keep investing in the people God has placed or continues to place in my life.

Some of the sweetest friends I have are with the 3 girls in this picture.  

When people ask me how I ended up at Western Carolina University I often say "God" because I really don't know why I chose that school. I could never have guessed when I went on a school visit and met these 3 girls that we would be the friends we are today.  They showed loved to me during a year that I was very unlovable.  They were Jesus to me in so many ways and showed me a Gospel love that I didn't deserve.  They are all older than me and were not only my friends in college, but my mentors, counselors, and truth speakers when I was a very mixed up freshman. 

They were a huge part of my spiritual growth and walked through so many ups and downs with me.  

12 years later they are all married, 2 of them have children, and all 4 of us live in different parts of the country.  We barely keep in touch, yet we know that we are on each others teams in life and that our friendships run deep.  

Although much time goes without phone calls and emails, we have managed to have some type of reunion almost every other year for the past 12 years.  

Each time we get together it's a gift with so much to catch up on, deep conversations, and lots and lots of laughter!  

We started the reunion this year with me picking up Heather and Samm from the airport in Atlanta and driving to Greenville to meet up with Colette.

We spent 2 of our nights in Greenville hanging out downtown, eating lots of food, and staying up until the early hours of the morning talking about memories and life.  

Since none of us had been back to Western in years we decided to drive to the mountains for 2 days.

It was so fun to walk around Western and just reminisce for hours.  We had so much fun re-living crazy nights on campus, roommate stories (colette and heather lived together one year and Heather and I lived together one year.  Samm was on staff with Campus Outreach so she lived in a house off campus), and just all the memories that encompass 4 years on a small college campus in the middle of nowhere NC.

We ate dinner and breakfast at favorite go to spots when we were all there and walked around the cute downtown of Sylva

I drug them to my old sorority house where I lived my senior year!  Phi Mu was a huge part of my college days, so it was so fun to go and take a little look at the house (and still see my composite on the wall:-))

 On Saturday night we decided to go visit some of our friends who live in Greenville, but decided to make it a little more fun than just a normal visit.  

Pranks were always a big part of our college days so we decided why not re-live that as mature adults.  Plus it's super cool to buy scary mask at Dollar Tree and take pictures in Goodwill on a Saturday night. (we had to keep reminding ourselves throughout the weekend that we actually aren't kids anymore, but man was it fun to act like one for a little while:-))

We laughed so hard (maybe the hardest I've laughed in years) driving down the road in our masks, scaring Jamie by standing at the door glaring in (when he didn't know we were coming) and tying cans underneath their minivan.  

After we had some fun it was great to catch up with Jamie and Frances. Jamie and Samm were staff partners for a couple years and Frances discipled me for a couple years.  

When I think back on our days together I can't get over how sweet they were.  From Thursday - Sunday we never turned on a tv, never watched a movie and never really had any big plans.  We let the days just flow and spent so much time just being together. 

It was beautiful to be in the mountains in October.

Coming up on a year in new city with new people I think I walked away from weekend more thankful than ever before for these friends, and being reminded what a sweet gift it is to be known and cared for.  

Saying good-bye on Sunday was hard.  We know that keeping in touch will not be a regular thing and that most likely we won't all be in the same room together again for awhile.  It's hard to share such sweet days together and then have to walk away.  

Thankfully friendship isn't determined by miles and even if we can't sit on the floor together laughing until we cry we can stay connected in different capacities 

(and sometimes send funny texts just to keep the laughter going)

I'm thankful for these 3.  Thankful that we can be real with each through the joys and pain and that there is always someone to remind you of the truth and make you laugh.

Friendship really is a sweet sweet gift! 

"It seemed they had always been, and would always be, friends. Time could change much, but not that. 

"Winne the Pooh"