I've Been Found!!

I've reconnected with another friend. This is one I have searched for years to try and find. Yesterday, I went into Facebook and there she was! She found ME!!!

We were the best of friends when we were young brides. I met her when I was pregnant with Michelle and she was newly married. My husband and I were shopping for a Christmas tree and bumped into a guy I knew when I was single. I introduced him to my new husband and he introduced us to his new wife. I remember secretly being a little jealous of her. I had wanted to date that guy when I was single but he wasn't interested. She obviously had sparked his interest. Silly things we remember. I also remember thinking how dumb I was being, here I was married and pregnant and jealous of her.

The jealously didn't last at all. Just a few weeks later, we met them again at church. She and her husband had become the apartment managers of a complex a few blocks away from us. I took her an apple pie after church to welcome her to the area and ward. We hit it off from then on.

We clung to each other through the hardships of being new moms, always broke, and husbands who did not step up to the plate of responsibility for their families. We used to go to the grocery store and fill our carts with the items on our WIC vouchers, and practically drool over the other carts with meat and produce in them. We spent hours together. We needed each other to get by. Our families grew and we each moved several times. We continued to see each other, but not as much. But when we did, the friendship was always there.

She divorced first. I remember thinking how brave she was. I remember thinking I could never survive the hardship she was going through. By the time I divorced, she had moved away and we had lost touch.

Yesterday when I went onto my Facebook account, I saw a new friend request. When I opened it I was elated. After all these years, nearly 14, we had found each other again. There are some friends you never forget, she is absolutely one of them. We are now writing back and forth, updating each other on all that has happened in the years between, during her breaks at work. I hope we can connect by phone this weekend.

Is that what it is going to be like in Heaven, when this life here on earth is over? After all these years will will be able to recognize our friends and loved ones and pick up as if no time had passed? We will have so much to tell each other. Will it be that we were valiant and strong? That despite the adversity, the sorrow, the hardship, we hung on?

My story will be more like I fell flat on my face, but I let the Lord pick me up and help me to stand again. Through that experience I have gained many valuable treasures. I am grateful to know just how much the Lord truly does love me. How much He loves us all.

It doesn't really matter which story we tell. What matters is that we pick ourselves up as many times as we fall. It matters that we are standing and not still fallen to the ground. It matters in whose grasp we let ourselves be held.

We are told that we must endure to the end.... Sometimes we forget that the end is still in the future. I find comfort in knowing that all the Lord really requires of me is that I do my best each day. Some days my best isn't much, but it was the best I could give that day. I think some days, I give more than I realized I did.

I am looking forward to many more joyful reunions.