Bursting with Joy.

Picture two little girls, about the age of 7.  One is dirty blonde, skinny, and is always has dirty barefeet from being outside.  The other is brunette, a little chunky, and prefers shoes.  Both have dorky glasses, love horses, and are best friends.  The blonde is always convincing the brunette to try outdoorsy things like jumping off of haystacks and running through pastures barefoot (even though the brunette is always the one to get hurt, get stickers [poky weeds] stuck in her feet, and falling off the horses while the blonde succeeds at everything).  The brunette challenges the blonde to try crazy foods like mushrooms, stir fry, and other random foods. These little girls call each other "sis", they spend as much time together as possible, and their families are close friends also. Like I said, these girls are the best friends that you see in movies.

Sorry Steph, I had to! :)

Now think of those two girls in their early twenties. The glasses are replaced by contacts, the blonde one washes her feet, the brunette is more adventurous, and yep, you guessed it, they are still best friends. They've had their ups and downs, had fights and forgiven each other, and lived miles apart throughout the years, but they still joke and call each other "Sis".  They still call each other all the time, laugh till their sides hurt, and have inside jokes and memories for days.

Obviously, I'm lucky enough to be the brunette girl and Stephanie is the dirty blonde.  I just feel so incredibly lucky/blessed to have a steady, wonderful, hilarious friend like her.  Other than family, she's the first one I call when I have good news, need to cry, am upset, or just want to talk to someone and she does the same with me.

Recently, she called me (which is not easy with me in Korea) with the most exciting news. She's now engaged to her long-time and wonderful boyfriend, Tom!! I honestly did not know I could be so excited for someone else. I'm beyond stoked. I was telling a friend, "If this is half of how excited I will be for my own engagement someday, I can't even imagine the feelings!"  I'm so, so happy for her and Tom.

Something I've been learning the last few years and especially this year is that friendships take effort.  They take loyalty, forgiveness, a willingness to initiate contact, and a desire on both parts.  I can only hope that I have been as wonderful a friend to Steph and other friends as they have been to me.

The most beautiful discovery true friends make is that they can grow separately without growing apart. 

-Elizabeth Foley