Happy Birthday, AMANDA!

Once in awhile, you meet a person that you just really click with, and you know that you were meant to be friends with them.

And while I am SO lucky to have a great group of girlfriends surrounding me (many of them have been my friends since highschool or even before), for me, that one person is my BFF, Amanda.  We met in 1992, our freshman year of highschool, on the swim team.  I'm not sure either of us particularly enjoyed swimming competitively, or if it was our idea to join the swim team, but we became fast friends, carpool buddies and pretty much inseperable.  ("Don't talk...KEEP SWIMMING!!")

Amanda and I shared just the right amount of goofiness, dorkiness (sorry dear, maybe this one is just me), and 'goody-two-shoe'ness to be great friends.  You know someone is your good friend when they send their little brother to get the autograph of a baseball player that your other friend is OBSESSED with...and then follow that up with a life-sized poster of that same player (nevermind that it was for an endorsement for MILK...LOL)!  Man, I can't even TELL you how excited I was when I opened that poster.  I think it hung in my bedroom til the end of highschool!  LOL

I wish I had more pictures of us together in highschool so you aren't left with these not-so great photos of us, but truth be told, our friendship fizzled and we each went our seperate ways.  I don't remember everything about why we stopped talking (can you really make sense of why adolescent girls get into fights?), but I do remember having to remind myself not to smile at her when I passed her in the hallway -- I've never been very good at staying mad at people....

Senior year, during our senior retreat, Amanda wrote me a heart-felt and touching letter which made me cry, and opened the avenue for us to re-kindle our friendship.  But, we both left for different colleges in different states, and we never took each other up on that offer.

College was a growing time for both of us.  We both had life-altering events happen which shaped us into the women we are today.  Getting together over coffee in 2004, we realized how much we still had in common, and the re-kindling we had promised ourselves over 8 years ago finally started to take root.  And while Amanda wasn't in my wedding, she was present!

And now, almost 17 years after we ended our friendship over something that was probably really stupid, we have become inseperable again.  Amanda is the sister I never had; sometimes we are even mistaken for sisters in public!  She is the type of friend that I can 100% be myself around, act plain goofy or let down my guard, and never be afraid to say something stupid or even something that she might not agree with.  We've had one fight since 2004 (yes, we actually discussed this the other night, and really, only ONE) over something so incredibly stupid that we both almost called each other minutes after it happened...but waited until the next morning because we couldn't bear being mad at each other any longer than that!

photos courtesy of Emily Southerland

When Max and I found out we were pregnant in 2007, there was no question in our mind who we wanted to be the godparent of our child.  They always say to pick someone who can model a life you'd give for your child, and Amanda does that perfectly.  The bond that she and lil Max have together is so precious and special -- it is something he will have with him the rest of his life.  He is one lucky kid, and we are so blessed to have her in our lives!

So, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Amanda, Auntie Amanda, Manda, etc.  I wish our friendship was more continuous, but I know that all these things had to happen for us to have the great friendship we have today.  We are so lucky and blessed to have you in our lives.  Thank you for being you!