girlfriends

I am so thankful for girlfriends!

It is 11:45 pm as I begin to type this post and I am so filled from my evening out with my close girlfriends that I couldn't even wait until morning to write this. Three of my really good friends from church (Katie, Dana and Julie) and I get together once or twice a month to have an "evening out with the girls." Our outing this evening started from the fact that we all were having struggles this week with misbehaving children and stress and felt that we need a moms' night out! I really think God knew what he was doing...I NEEDED this evening so badly!! We laughed and we cried (a lot, I mean a lot...I had puffy eyes) and we ended up laughing more!

We started the evening out by having an early dinner and then went to see the movie "A Sister's Keeper". Oh my! I think we cried through the ENTIRE movie. I was drained emotionally when we came out of the movie....an oh, I felt so sorry for this poor guy sitting beside me, listening to the four of us sniffle and blow our noses, and sniffle some more! This movie was good, but so very hard to watch and not think of what you would do in a situation like that. It was about having a child diagnosed with cancer and all the struggles that this family went through!

That is what I meant by God knew what he was doing. I had such a rough week with all my children. They were disobedient, not listening, being sassy and I could go on and on. But tonight - I was reminded of how thankful I am to have them in my life. I mean, yes it can be crazy and frustrating at times, but what would I do if I didn't have them? What if they weren't healthy? I needed that!!! I needed to be reminded of the blessing that God has provided me in my three little girls! I came home tonight and stood over each one of them as they slept and thanked Him for giving them to me, for the joy and happiness that they bring to my life (and the craziness too) and for the wonderful gift of being their mom!

The evening ended at IHOP for some time to get out of the saddened mood we were all in after that movie. We laughed at stories of our kids and the silly things they do and we talked about different parenting techniques and the best ways to deal with their disobedience.

I love our time together, we relate to one another so well - as women, as wives, as mothers, and as Christians. When I moved to Salina, one of my biggest fears was that I was not going to make friends like the ones in had in Hutch - I only knew one friend that lived here other than my family! I'm not sure why I had this fear since I am so outgoing - but, I think I thought since I wasn't working I wouldn't make friends there and going to a new church was a new feeling for me, so I wasn't sure if I would make a lot of close relationships that I so long to have. Well, I was wrong... I have... and I am so thankful that God has brought these wonderful women into my life!