Friendship in Numbers

I look around the table at my 4 friends,

girls I've known for around 9 years,

Since before any of us had a child.

And now between the 5 of us, we have 15 children, with 2 more on the way!

If I squint I can see us in our former, pre-kid lives back in year 2001.

We were working, career-oriented Jesus-loving young women navigating the first few years of marriage.

And I marvel at how much we've grown up!

Throughout our near decade of friendship we've weathered

job losses,

buying 1st houses,

pregnancies,

regular births,

C-sections,

nursing,

bottle feeding,

sleepless nights,

decisions about returning to work or staying at home,

cancer diagnosis,

infertility,

twins,

countless birthday parties,

playdates,

children who walk very early,

children who walk late,

easy-going kids,

strong-willed kids,

happy babies,

fussy babies,

the death of a father,

and then another father,

a hurricane,

ER trips with our children,

the sickness of a mother,

the hospitalization of a child,

potty training.

As each of these things has happened in one or two or all of our lives, the experience has been shared by us all.

We've exchanged countless emails, casseroles, recipes, stories, childcare, advice, prayers.

We are close enough to pick up each other's babies when they fuss and make ourselves at home in each other's kitchens.

We are busy and don't get to see one another as often as we used to (when there were zero or just a handful of kids among us!), but when we get together we pick up right where we left off.

And our conversations on this particular night range from very serious to very silly.

We relish the dinner we did not cook and won't clean up from, the fact that our husbands are at home bathing our kids and putting them to bed, the meal without any spilled milk or time-outs, that we actually get to eat while it is still hot!!

We laugh loud and often, we talk so long the restaurant staff begins to stack the chairs.

And so we head outside and carry on the conversation a bit longer there, too!

What a blessing this friendship is; there is something infinitely beautiful about "doing life" with others!

Find more Thankful Thursday and Things I love Thursday.