10/24 Today I am grateful for.......

In the late 90's, I was in an email group for moms called Just4Moms. We were divided into sub-groups (infants, toddlers, preschoolers, moms who were trying to conceive, Christian moms, Jewish moms, moms of teens, etc, etc). When the larger organization decided to move to a web-based message board system, one of the groups I was a part of (the trying to conceive group) decided to stick together & create our own email group to stay in touch because, at the time, none of us wanted to move to the message board system. We had created such a sweet little tight knit community that we didn't want to get "lost" on the message boards.

And so, Just-us-Moms (aka: JUMs) was formed. We had our own email group for a long, long time. The group technically still exists, but most of us are on Facebook now & keep in touch that way instead.

From that group of moms, many friendships were formed that I will forever be thankful for. But one of them in particular became especially sweet for me. I met my best friend through that group & after all these years, we've only actually seen each other in person 1 time, but the distance only makes the friendship sweeter. (Plus I'm convinced that one day I'll persuade her to move to Texas!)

Bethany gets me. She knows how passionate I am about Jesus & worship. She knows how deeply seated my faith is & how that affects everything in my life.

But she also knows that I'm a bit of a grammar and spelling nazi. She knows how screwed up my sense of humor is. She knows about my health, my family, my marriage, my finances. We share lots of texts & emails every single day, despite the hundreds of miles between us. She knows about all my idiosyncrasies & loves me anyway.

I can't put into words the privilege it is to have Bethany in my life. We joke that we share some crazy DNA link, because over the years we have found so many things about our lives that are similar. (Even though I can't convince her that my Texan habit of putting butter in my hot sauce at Mexican restaurants is yummy!)

We've shared births, deaths, hurts, marital highs & lows (including a divorce), losses & loves. We've watched each others' children grow up, shared stories of diapers, potty training, puberty, and everything in between.

As the years of our lives go by, we've gone from young 20s to nearing our 40s. We've talked about our changing metabolisms, hormonal craziness, menopause, night sweats, weird facial hairs and all the other strange things female bodies do as they age.

I look forward to the years when we discuss our children's college choices, their spouses, the grandbabies we will rock to sleep while we babysit. I look forward to the years we can compare notes as we buy burial plans and long-term nursing home vs. assisted living issues.

Thank you, God, for Bethany.

I love you, girl!