My Friends

"It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer." ~Charlotte's Web

Anyone who is a hobby blog reader knows that after awhile you develop a kinship with these women. You get to know their families, their hobbies, their beliefs and passions, their ways of life. You rejoice with them and you cry with them. When you are cooking dinner far from your computer screen, you think of them. You offer up prayers for them. You consider them friends, though you've never met.

But sometimes it works in the reverse. There are the friends you often see face to face. They are the ones you meet up with at the movie theatre or the park or invite over to chat. The friends who push each other's kids on the swings while swapping midwife recommendations. The friends who visit when you have a baby is born to bring dinner and a smile. When these friends start blogs of their own, it is a double blessing!

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Allyson was one of Brian's and my friends during our college days. When we were planning our wedding on a budget, she gladly pitched in as one of our wedding photographers. When we were a newly married couple, I remember her attending a Christmas party at our apartment and I remember going out to dinner with her and two other friends (one being my future sister-in-law, though at the time she was not dating my brother!) a few weeks before Gavin was born. Then we lost touch.

I ran into her in Target a couple of years later when she was engaged. I admired her ring, and that was that...until I ran into her again at the library (where else?) last year and we began to rekindle our friendship. Both being pregnant and due the same week, we had a lot to talk about in person and through e-mail. Not long after I started this blog, she started one, too, and how fun it was open her blog one morning and read that she had beat me to the punch and had her baby 4 weeks early!!

Allyson, her husband, Tim, and their two (soon-to-be three) children announced recently that they are moving out of state so Tim can finish his degree. I'll be keeping up with their family through their blog, though, and so can you. Visit Allyson at http://a-heart4home.blogspot.com/.

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Then came Molly. I first met Molly through Craigslist when I was pregnant with Benjamin. I was cleaning out my stash of slings and she responded to my "for sale" ad. After a few e-mails, we discovered that we were both local homeschool graduates who had very likely had a unknown meeting in the past. (You know, those instances when you don't know someone, but later realize you were in the same place at the same time...) When Molly started a blog this spring, I cheered for the chance to get to know her even better. You can get to know her, too, by stopping by http://www.momma-molly.com/.

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Next my mom followed suit. My mom is the one introduced me to blogs in the first place. She got me reading "Humble Amy" before I even knew what a blog was! She has read my blog from the beginning and now she has started her own. I have the privilege of sharing phone calls and visits with her, and while you can't do that, you can at least peek at her world now, too, though her blog at http://thinking-about-home.blogspot.com.

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The latest recruit to the blog world is my friend Raya. Raya and I first met at a La Leche League meeting when my Gavin was 4 months and her Shiloh seven weeks younger. She reminded me the other day that the first time we got together outside of the meetings, our boys looked at each other and then went to sleep. Six years later, they do much more than look at each other. Now they run and whoop and laugh and make as much noise as possible. Usually they rope Owen into their games in an effort to increase the decibel level! A few weeks ago, Shiloh asked Gavin, "Why do you act so crazy when I come over?" to which Gavin replied, "You act crazy, too!"

Last year, Raya and I found out we were both expecting and we spent many hours talking about back ache and Braxton Hicks and birth. Her Anikah was born at home exactly seven weeks before my Benjamin made his debut. Now our conversation revolves around vaccines and first steps, and also math lessons and sewing and yardsales and books. Raya is one of my closest friends and I'm happy to introduce you to her. Visit her at http://onthewingsofdawnpsalm139.blogspot.com/.

Raya's Shiloh, Molly's Peanut, & my Maddie

Kristin