When Best Friends Come Back to Town

WARNING: This post may get sappy 😉

When Bruce and I moved back to Colorado Springs after college, we were recently dating & excited to no longer be long distance. But we also were leaving our wonderful college communities and starting over with friendships. It was a hard season for many reasons – I know so many of us know what it is like to make friends outside of college. It is a journey for sure. We met the Mays at church and again when Bruce’s mom gave us pottery lessons at Meredith’s studio. Somehow in those couple weeks we exchanged phone numbers and said we should hang out. We were at dinner one night that week (Red Robin) and thought to text our new friends to see if they would be up for games. They said yes. We were overcome by a need to impress (or just plain crazy) and stopped at the dollar store on the way to get everything we needed to throw a 5th birthday party.

When we rang the door we yelled “Happy 5th Birthday Meredith!” and gave her presents and threw confetti and pretty much made fools of ourselves. It worked. The Mays quickly became our best friends and our go-to couple friends that we so desperately needed. That was 6 years ago.

I could write story after story about our friendship. All the times we laughed until our bellies hurt. All the times we banded together in prayer and lifted each other up through hardship and broken hearts. All the times we gathered around meals, scraped wallpaper off the wall (that was actually only one time 😉 ), worked on home projects together, sat around campfires, talked about our dreams, shared our stories. All the Broncos vs. Chiefs games we watched together – and really just all the football in general. Our wedding that they both stood with us in. Those nights we would listen to early 2000’s rap or watch all the teen girl squad episodes until 1 am. The breakfast places we tried and the new breweries we fell in love with. The games. The vacations. The memories. And of course the little baby who became our favorite sidekick!

Last year they moved to Kansas and we all cried. Change is hard. The Lord has brought so many friends into my life for different reasons and seasons. I know the Lord is ever so faithful and calls us to different places. Having the Lord lead away our best friends was not something we had planned on or wanted but we knew they needed to be in Kansas. And we hoped that our friendship would span the miles and continue – because the Mays are more than friends, they are family (I warned you this could get sappy!)

The point of all this is that friendships are worth it. Even when you have to say goodbye. Taking time to invest, gather, and be in community is life changing. And although this friendship is now long distance, we have built such a foundation that picking back up is a piece of cake 😉 Annnnd… it totally helps that Bruce & John are coworkers so they talk all day! haha. They came out to Colorado this last week for vaca and we soaked up every little bit of it!

We hit up Over Easy for breakfast (continuing our friendship breakfast tradition), played games while the toddler napped,  went to new hip coffee shops & breweries (also tradition), and gathered for meals with friends & family. Pretty much everything we would normally do but in one day.

And we loved every darn bit of it.

PS: I am adding gif maker to my resume!