The Glovers

When we told our family we were moving to Arizona, my Aunt asked me if I was sure about leaving my friends.

She told me that leaving behind the Village I had in Georgia was going to be hard.  Those friends weren't easily replaceable.

And I knew that.  

My Village was pieced together over 14 very formative years.  These women had all walked into my life and clicked right at the moments I needed them to.  Andrew and I had many acquaintances around Atlanta.  Heck, there were times I felt like Andrew knew everyone.  But there were a handful of women that were mine.

They knew me.  All of me.

They watched me date and break up with Andrew 25 times before a whirlwind two week engagement that ended with a courthouse wedding.  They listened to me long for a baby for years when it just wouldn't happen, then celebrated with me on the day Josie came home by joining us at Walmart at 9 PM while we tried to figure out what an 8 month old needed.

Church changes, family changes, foster care trials, and heart surgeries.

They helped me pack up a UHaul to follow a dream and flew to my side when my brother died. 

These girls were my net.

And even though I knew that when they were living right up the street, I didn't get what my Aunt was so concerned about until recently.

The first few months of living here were so surreal that I didn't notice.

The next six months were so full of heartbreak that I needed to recoil into myself.  My Mom the only person I wanted close.

And now here we are, about to celebrate being one year residents of my favorite place on the planet.

And it's good.

My marriage is thriving, my kids are settled and about to start school, I have a job that I wake up excited about every morning.  We are financially better than we've ever been and life is easy.

But I miss my Village.

I miss the actual girls that made it up, but I knew that losing that was just a reality of moving.

What I miscalculated was how difficult it would be to make new friend.

Because I'm no good at casual friendship.  No good at all.  I want immediate Know Everything About Me kind of friends.  I want spontaneous drop bys and cookouts and dang it if I don't want a girls night that ends with us roaming Target for hours.

I've made a friend or two and am getting closer to them, which is nice.  But it's not that familiar feeling I'm desperately missing.

So when Andrew started arranging for his Atlanta friend to fly out for a weekend, one that happens to be the husband of my very first Village Member, I started scheming ways to make it a joint deal.  Tiffany was planting the same seeds in Jason's ears and before I knew it, we had a full on Guys Weekend, Girls Weekend planned.

And it did my heart so good.

I met Tiffany the first month I lived in Georgia.  When I was fresh out of treatment and had zero friends.  She's been a friend ever since.  It hasn't been a smooth, zero conflict type of friendship which is exactly why she's one of my favorite friends.  Because we kept coming back to each other.  And that means a lot to me.

This weekend was great.  The guys did guy stuff, we did girl stuff, then we came together at night for some pretty amazing date nights.

Someday I'll have a net here, but until then, I'm so thankful that we have gotten to have friends fly out to visit.