Make New Friends, But Keep the Old...

Somebody  please tell me that that is a real song and not just a figment of my imagination. I vaguely remember it from childhood... you know... "one is silver and the other gold". Hopefully I'm not the only one out there who remembers that song. ANYWAY....

I wanted to share some pictures from a visit with some of our oldest friends on Friday night, but for you to be able to understand my sentiment for that night, I thought I would include a little background information.

At the beginning of my 10th grade year, I became friends with a guy named Michael. This led me into a whole host of friendships and involvement in the church across the street from my highschool, where I began to attend on a regular basis with these friends. We still attend that church today, where I that same year met my future husband, through Michael and our other friends. Also in my 10th grade year, I was very involved in the highschool's Concert Choir. I became dear friends with a girl named Rachel, who I hit it off with on our New York choir tour. After that Rachel and I hung out and began to make mutual friends- one said friend being Michael. Michael and Rachel began to date and so did Ryan and I. We went on our first date EVER together on a double date with Michael and Rachel. We lived out the rest of our highschool years together in this tight knit circle of friends. Ryan and I stayed at Memphis, pretty sure marriage was in our future. Michael and Rachel went their own ways off to college. We all stayed in touch. Michael and I worked together at the church as youth interns the summer that Ryan and I got married. Over the summer Michael and Rachel reconnected and got engaged and married the next spring. They shortly after moved to St. Louis for Michael to attend seminary, which was  great for Ryan and I as we were in St. Louis fairly often and always paid them a visit. Now graduated, Michael and and Rachel and their two precious kids are settling in again in a new life in San Antonio, TX, 12 hours away, as Michael has accepted the RUFcampus minister position at Trinity in San Antonio. We got to see them over the weekend while they were in town for the week. While I'm sure most could take or leave all these details, it just reminds me how rare our situation is.

How fun to have four mixed and mutual friends get to be kids together--

(This was one of the less embarassing of the embarassing=)

 Date together and be there for eachother while we get married--

Have whole family sleep overs, haha, sorry guys-

and be there when the other has babies--

and grow up together, whether near or far

is such a blessing and example of God's faithfulness through the years.

I think it's pretty easy to make new friends when you're a busy family with kids. A lot of times you become friends with the families of your kids friends, which is great. But I do think being a busy family makes it harder to keep the old friends. Thats what I love about our friendship- we don't get to see eachother often and we don't even talk and catch up as often as I'd like- we don't get to meet up for lunch or have playdates. But the bottom line is we are always there for eachother and in any phase of life can get together and pick up where we left off.

So Friday night they took some time out of their jam packed week to see us for a bit. And I FINALLY got some pictures of our kids together. Last time we took some (above) their oldest Caleb was napping and their new baby girl Abby- well this was our first time to meet her, so =)

The guys.

Caleb and Bennett- they look like they could be cousins by blood. Seriously. They are 6 months apart. I loved getting to see some of Caleb's personality- one thing I do miss out on not getting to be a part of their everyday life.

These two are also 6 months apart. I was seriously head over heels for Abby. She was the sweetest and most adorable little thing. I just loved her and wanted to keep her. Badly.

So I wanted to tell you all about our history with Michael and Rachel so you could understand how I felt about these pictures. Being the sentimental person that I am, I was just tickled over sitting on the couch with one of my oldest friends- ten years, two weddings, a few cities (for them), and FIVE CHILDREN later. I just couldn't believe that with the paths God has led us down over the years, though they run different ways, He has seen fit to keep them crossing eachother for sweet moments. I can't wait to see where the next ten years takes us and I hope we get to take another one of these in another ten years. We love you guys!