Best Friend

Proverbs 17:17 NIV
A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.

Proverbs 18:24 NIV
A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

This weekend my BEST friend, Carrie, came for a visit. We have been friends since my freshman year of college at Texas Tech. She was a freshman Challenge leader at nine30 and a sophomore. God has used her so mightily in my life in the past 11 years. I am so blessed by her love and friendship. I had known Carrie through Challenge and I think she gave a ride to some Challenge event, but then how we began "bonding" is a funny story. I was at nine30 (in the service) and we turned around to greet people, and when she turned around to greet me I just started crying and said "I got a tattoo". I had gotten my tattoo the night before, and although I love it now, I was worried about certain repercussions at that point. After that, our friendship was sealed, and she was drawn into the drama of my life!:) Carrie is the type of friend that always tells me what God wants me to hear, NOT what I want to hear, and spurs me on in my walk with God and encourages me every time I talk to her, even though sometimes what she has to say is hard to hear, I'm always thankful for it. She is an amazing friend to everyone around her and has walked through a lot of things with me and stood by my side. This weekend was no exception. Although she had her own baby (5 month old Claire bug) who was having sleep issues, she watched my girls so I could take a few naps, swept my floors, prepared us 3 meals and froze them, loved on Mali, gave me spiritual advice, listened to me, gave me advice on parenting Mali, etc., etc.,!
She has been wonderful throughout my life and really has been a step ahead of me in most things in life; marriage, job, etc., Although I did have my first child before her and finished my master's before her. One thing I love about our friendship too, is that she just gets me and thinks similar to the way I think. We both had our undergrad in Family Studies and then went on to get our Master's in Counseling, so we are really on the same page and skip past lots of explanations. I just had to post about how much I love my friend and how much she has meant to me. This is a little muddled though, I've been up since 5:30am!! I wanted to post one of our first pictures together, Mission Trip 1999 where we forced Dan to take our picture in Hollywood in front of a stretch limo, but I think it is in the attic, so here is another picture of us on Mission Trip the next year and a picture of our girls. We were too sleep deprived to take a decent picture of ourselves!:) Although, Carrie did get one in the car on the way to the airport!:)


I am also super blessed by my other friends, Beth and Melissa! Who have also cleaned my house countless times, cooked for me, listened to me, loved on Mali, and even took care of me when I was throwing up!:) Yeah for friends that God gives!