friends

i have made a few friends both locally and afar over the last three years since moving to our current home. as a young child and a young adult, i had some difficulties making and keeping any friends of substance (surprising i know LOL).

over the last three years, since moving to our current home, i have acquired a handful of new friends and to say these friends have been a blessing would be a gross understatement.

a few months ago, one of these friends delivered their old stove to our door (an hour away) to replace our broken stove. they installed it and if that wasn't enough, they brought with them and gave to us, deer, pheasant, rabbit, cheese and other assorted goodies-just because. they even offered to mow the grass to help us out. these same folks a few months back, drove over here for a few hours just to take my kids to the park so i could sleep after a very hard night at the emergency room.

another friend who lives about 6 hours from here, has sent me clothing and other useful essential items that i could not afford to purchase for myself. she and her family paid all of the shipping costs and i suspect maybe even purchased a few of the items herself. then she brought her wonderful family to visit and brought us bread and jellies and hostas for my yard and even helped me plant them (heck they did all the hard work) while they were here.

another friend whom i have yet to see face to face, has counseled me through many sessions of things of importance to me and the well being of my family and she has also sent me a few wonderful gifts in the mail including, organic soap, organic mocha java (major brownie points there!), some organic sauces, some grits and other various oddities and unique items from her part of the country for my family to enjoy.

more recently, harvest has been grand. a couple of these blessings from God have been so generous and given us apples, zucchini, cucumbers and tomatoes, canning jars and have loaned(and even delivered to my door) items to help me process the foods i've been given to keep for winter and spring.

all of them have prayed for us, given to us, endured my relentless phone calls and visits and endless questions and requests for advice and problem solving both regarding the harvest (all new stuff to me) and any problems at home that seemed to pop up during the season's rush. thanks to them, my husband is still breathing, my children still love me, my house is still standing and we have apple sauce, apple butter, grape jelly, frozen zucchini, salsa and kimchee to last through the season and best of all, i get to call of these people, these wonderful, generous, kind, compassionate people--my friends.

i don't know for the life of me what i did to deserve any of them and this and sometimes it's so overwhelming i begin to well up. it's hard for me to conceive that so many people would be so kind to us for no other reason than just because they want to love us. i do know that the Lord was responsible for bringing them to us as an answer to my many repeated prayers over the years for friends that i could love and who would love me in return. the really neat thing is, i asked God for one good friend and He sent me one dozen. God is so GREAT!

i couldn't ask for better friends and even if i did, i don't think they even make them any better than this.

blessings to you all!

~hb