Friends are part of the Family

This weekend, we went snowmobiling with some friends.  While warming up eating at a local restaurant, my best friend voiced those same thoughts.  She said, "How did I end up with such wonderful friends who know me like I've known them my entire life, when it's only been a few years?!"  Let me tell you, it made me love my BFF even more.  We've talked about it before, but it's so true.  She married a friend of ours who, at the time they met, was more an acquaintance than anything.  But over the years of their dating, we all became super close and she's now the one I go to for everything.  We finish each other's sentences, we've had our babies at the same times (not planned, either) we get together for everything and can talk for hours or sit in the silence with one another.  Our kids call eachothers' parents "Gramma and Grampa."  If we get together for something, we will automatically start helping the other with things like loading the dishwasher, emptying the grocery bags on the counter, changing the poopy diaper while she's in the middle of a phone call.  She is like a sister to me, and I to her (and we both have sisters).

I honestly don't know what I'd do without her.  I look back at High School and think how because I always did something with one friend, she was my best friend.  I never thought that I'd live far from her, or we'd grow apart.  But now that real life has set in, I realize that true friends are so much more than they were in school.  They are the ones who will step in to watch your kids while you go on vacation and expect nothing in return.  They are the ones who don't care that you show up and their house isn't perfect...and then don't feel bad when you start to help with what needs it.  They are the friend who will take your teary call at 6 am because the baby won't stop crying and you are at your wits end.  They are the friend who will laugh with you until the tears fall, usually over something completely ridiculous and stupid.  They are the friend who lets you put her make-up on her because she lost track of time and the rest of the company will be there in 5 minutes...and she's elbow deep in jalapeno poppers.  They are the friend who will do anything for you, and you will do anything for them.  They are the friend who you've only known for 10 years, but you feel like you've grown up together.

Friends like that are truly part of the family.  I hope you each have a friend who has touched your life in such a wonderful, important way.