my friend Shawn.....

Every once in a while God drops someone in your life that you just know in an instant that you will have a friend for life.  Not just a friend, but a companion...someone who understands your heart without you having to say a word.  I've been blessed in my life to be surrounded with solid friendships everywhere that I've lived.  I have Debbie who is my closest friend from childhood, we can go months without connecting and then just pick back up when we do connect.  I think about the time of our life when we had our first child and the friends that I made during that time, so many young navy wives who befriended this pastor's wife even though I didn't have a clue what it must be like to stand at a pier and watch my husband leave for 6 months with a toddler at my feet and a baby on my hip.  And I think of Charlotte in Alabama who helped me so much to not take myself too seriously as a wife, mother or Christ follower.  She taught me so much about how down to earth God is and how much he wants me to enjoy his company and how he gave me my kids because he knew I'd enjoy them more than anyone else.  Then Jeannette who just became my role model, this is the kind of wife, mother and friend I want to be.  The way she loves my children, even from 1000+ miles away now, is just like Jesus loves them!  I can call her at any time and talk to her about anything and she'll give me the most encouraging feedback!  There's Tonia, Missy and Donna who pray for me daily and love me so completely!  Stacey & Stacy who I just laugh so easily with but remind me who created me and believe in who I was created to be and encourage me to stretch myself....  And then there's Shawn.  Shawn is my newest friend but one of the ones I feel the the most "like"!  She and I are so much alike in the way we love our husbands who are both pastors, the way we parent our children, she has 5, I have 4....talking with her feels as if we have known each other our entire lives!  She's precious. And I'm honored to have gotten to know her this year!  And I'm looking forward to all of the things God's going to teach me about myself as we journey through life as friends...good friends....