#2,482 Hope’s Baby Shower.

Hope and I go way back.

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Like, WAY way back.

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Like, years before that even, back to like… 1997.

We were so close, we were more like sisters than friends. And then we went to different colleges, but we stayed close. And then we moved back home to Laurel, got married, and found ourselves thrown into our work and living on opposite sides of the county which made our hangouts less frequent…

But she’s that friend I’ve had for life and always will—the friend I call when the big things in life happen. Like a few months ago when she called to tell me she and Jon were (surprise!) expecting a little one this November. Tonight we celebrated and no matter how busy life gets, I wouldn’t miss this for the world. I love her dearly regardless of how often we see each other these days. It was fantastic that the guest list included lots of our friends made in the last 5 years, but also our oldest and dearest from high school and college, and I got to catch up with everyone I haven’t seen in years. It was like coming home, and remembering everything I loved about these people before we knew who we would be when we grew up.

These were my girls growing up in elementary and high school. To this day, I’d still trust Kandace and Hope with all my secrets and our lifetime of friendship.

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And these were some of my college friends. Tonight we screamed with laughter remembering a barn party in Starkville, the girls our boyfriends dated before us, and that random guy whose name was just initials whom we think maybe works for the CIA now?

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This is Amanda, whose house we were celebrating in. She’s the one who knew I had a crush on Ben and he had a crush on me, but never breathed a word to either of us. I envied her because she was actually FRIENDS with Ben Napier and I only knew him by association. I love her and also could kill her for not telling either of us! But I guess that’s why she was always a great friend—you could trust her. She was an honorary bridsemaid in our wedding and the undisputed nicest person at our junior college. After college she moved off to Ecuador and did mission work and now she’s married to Hunter, our landscape design expert on the show.

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Isn’t life funny, how it ties us all together no matter how far away we may roam for a while?  In just a few weeks, I’ll welcome my oldest friend’s baby into the world. What a blessing he’ll be!