best friends are forever…

It should be noted that our “Dinner with the Dentons” has changed from Tuesday to Thursday nights so Jack and Parker can participate in their baseball practices without rushed dinner plans to follow:). We are going strong on our weekly dinner commitment with our dear friends who really have become family through this commitment. (Never underestimate what the Lord might want to do with the neighbors next door. What began 8 years ago as formal ring-the-door-bell introductions, ‘we should do dinner some time’ and do you happen to have a cup of sugar we could borrow–has definitely turned into something that will carry us through more than we ever imagined.) Rain or shine–dinner is on…once a week together…breaking bread together once a weeknight for 4 years. Wow. Cool, huh??? For 4 years we’ve had dinner together once a week…

And these kids–because of this commitment are really growing up together…becoming the best of friends…

There hasn’t been a DAY that these children haven’t known one another. The Dentons were our neighbors many a year ago. We moved in next door to them when I was 6 months pregnant with Parker.

We’ve really been through so much together. Every pregnancy…every birth…and just about every scraped knee or scar any of us could tell you the story behind it.

On the night I ran out of the house to have Laney…in the wee hours of the night–Dent came to sleep on the couch and care for Parker (he even joined us at the hospital later when he fell down the steps with him! Thankfully–all was well!) I almost caused Jett to have her firstborn on the highway because I convinced her to WAIT until she KNEW he was coming…because she surely didn’t want them to send her home. She got there in time (thank the Lord!) but she had to have a natural birth because there wasn’t time for an epidural. (That’s what friends are for…to make our lives a little more exciting, right?!)

We’ve held up one another through hardship…through health problems…praying for pregnancies…grieving a miscarriage. We took them through our crazy adoption wait–and they’ve gone down the crazy cocoon and adjustment home time with us. And all the while…when all the kitchen talk, coffee, adults sharing over dinner…these kids–have become a band of brothers and sisters that can’t be broken…

We not only love one another’s children–but we’re close enough to wipe noses, change diapers…and know who likes their sandwich cut this way or that (not that we’d ACTUALLY go to such lengths;). We correct and guide one another’s children as if they were our own. Four years ago, we both moved–so although these kids don’t go to the same school…the same church or live in the same neighborhood…our weekly commitment to doing life together by simply breaking bread together once a week rain or shine–has led to even deeper sweeter and long-lasting friendships and memories.

And I love that this bunch will all be able to look at one another and say, “There’s never a day that I didn’t know you…”

Thankful for friends who are really family…who you can tag-team and make vacation cheaper by going together…and ones you are close enough with to come in the living room in the morning with no makeup, bed head and coffee–and ask them to not talk to you yet while you wake up–and they laugh;). Thankful for friends you can call at the last minute and ask for help when you need it–and they love you so much to help you–and vice versa. Thankful for friends children you love so much…when they fall–your heart hurts just as if they were your own…and you run to them without realizing that they aren’t yours–but they might as well be–so you run anyway. Thankful for the miracle of friendship–and how we really need one another…and how the Lord provides for us the most precious friends in the most perfect seasons.

Blessings to you this weekend!

Andrea