blessed are those who love...


You can plan all you want.
You can think you know what is going on.
The sooner you realize that His Ways are not your ways...you will really grow.

The boys met while working in the corn fields when they were 13 or 14. He married before DH did. I met them when their now 36 year old daughter was a few weeks old. The men were already best friends and she and I would follow suit. The friendship would last for over 30 years. We spent many, many hours together. At one point, we lived across the street from each other - I couldn't have been happier. As our girls became teenagers, the men had 6 VW bugs to work on. They were our family and we were theirs.

They divorced. We saw it coming but could do nothing to stop it. The friendship with both of them fell apart. There were many reasons and I still miss them to this day. It has been over three years since her and I talked. I will always love her and the girls. They were like my own. I always thought of myself as a mom to three even though I only gave birth to one.

I still keep in contact with the oldest girl - she is a sweetheart. Like Keaton, kindness comes naturally to her. She had let us know that the youngest was getting married this year. Memorial Day to be exact - we were not invited. We didn't expect to be but independently, Brandi and I decided we wanted to send a wedding gift so we did. We did not receive a response but we didn't expect too.

DH dropped his work phone in the water last Friday and got a new one on Monday. New to him, it was a used phone form a co worker who happens to be this family's cousin. As DH and I sat at Costco eating dinner the night he got the new phone, he mentioned that there were pictures of this cousin left on the phone. I grabbed the phone to see his kids. I had know this kid since he was a baby and now he had three boys of his own. As I flipped through the pics I came upon what looked like a bride and her step-dad. It looked like our Seattle bride. There was also a picture of her grandparents who had claimed my girl for most of her life. I almost started to cry.

DH got home so late last night we didn't talk much but before he left for work this morning, he said, I talked to K and and it was the wedding in Seattle.. You could say that the cousin not taking off his pics from the phone was a fluke. Say what you want, make your plans, but leave room for the unexpected. Leave room for God. Never say Never. Imagine, never having to imagine...