Like sisters

In my life I am blessed with many friends, for which I am grateful. In the many places we have lived, I have always been able to find ladies I enjoy spending time with.

But then there are those few times in your life when you are blessed with a little bit more, and I personally believe those times are a rare gift. When our family lived in Sacramento and Ez was finishing college and then at the Highway Patrol Academy, we got to be friends with Scott and Annette. They quickly became great friends. We have seen each other through many experiences and watched our families grow. It was one of those friendships when you are more like family than anything else. When we moved to Elk Grove it was hard for me because I had to move about 30 minutes from my dearest friend--luckily it wasn't too far to travel. Then we moved to Porterville, nearly 5 hours away! There have been times since that move that I have simply ached to live closer to Annette and her family and have the chance to visit and just be near a dear friend. You never can replace a friendship like that, for they are so very rare. I really haven't expected to find that again.

Well, I have been given that rare gift once again! Jen and Laura and I perhaps came to be friends initially because of our babies--they are all born rather close in age, and so we quite often would find ourselves in the mother's lounge at church at the same time (we all know the fun times to be had in the mother's lounge!). Then we started to have occasional play dates and that quickly grew to a weekly visit, typically lasting 4-5 hours! It didn't take long for us to see that there was that connection, that immediate bond and true friendship.

We started getting together regularly in January and had no intentions on it ever having to stop. Laura is here living in Vacaville while her husband is in the CHP academy for that 6 month duration, but we always figured they would transfer to an office not far from here and be in a town not terribly far away. Jen lives in Vacaville with her two sweet children and had no intentions of ever leaving. Guess what...Jen is getting married and moving her little family down to Bakersfield. Laura and her family are going to Santa Cruz! Our time to play together suddenly had a time frame.

Well, the end of the fun has come upon us quite suddenly. Jen gets married July 5th. Gavin graduates on July 11th and then he and Laura are moving. Wow! Once again I have had this rare kind of friendship and it has to leave! At first I was terribly sad, but now I can only see how much better I am for having had good friends. We have been able to experience so many things together and be there to support each other in ways we didn't know was needed. We have laughed and cried, eaten lots of yummy food, and watched our babies grow a bit together. It has been a precious 6 months.

Things are so busy for the next 2 weeks that last night was our last chance to really get together. We got babysitters for the kids and went out to eat and chat and have fun. We had a great time!

I will miss them dearly! I joke around and say that now I am friend shopping--of course it isn't true. True friendships stand the test of time and distance. I am truly so happy to watch them move on to better things for their families, and I am so grateful to know we will always stay connected!


A photo of us from last night, taken by a nice fellow dinner-goer!