Happy Birthday!

When I was a child, summer meant AWANA camp and the traditional summer friend-making. We are shy at first, giggling together by the end of the first night, sneaking around pulling pranks by the second night, and inseparable by the last day. We vow to write and keep in touch, but slowly taper off into becoming become 5x a year friends. Contact is limited to Christmas, camp, the AWANA Olympics, the Grand Prix, and the Quiz. It’s not that we didn’t like each other, it’s just that we had other friends and busy lives at school, church, etc.

All that changed the year I met Crystal at camp. Things started out as they did with any other summer friendship, but then skyrocketed from there.

I didn’t know then that for every remaining year of camp, we somehow defied statistics and ended up being randomly assigned to the same team every year. I didn’t know that we’d end up in school together, again always in the same class. I didn’t know then that within a few years I would be calling her Mom my “other mother.” I didn’t know that our Moms would make every decision on whether or not we were allowed to do something based on what the other one thought. “Is Crystal going?” was the key that got me anywhere. I didn’t know that spending time with somebody that smart and efficient would spur me to get and continue to get the best grades I’d ever gotten and eventually end up valedictorian. I didn’t know that making the volleyball team would be a crushing disappointment because she didn’t get on too. I didn’t know that we’d be so close that when we were out together with her Mom, the cashier at Safeway would ask if we were twins. I didn’t know that, at 15, I would be devastated when her Dad retired and they moved back to Washington. I didn’t know that, despite the separation, we’d never lose touch and we’d always be completely in sync even after a few months with no contact. I didn’t know that she’d talk me into following her to college and be the catalyst for a major change in my worldview. I didn’t know that she’d be so insistent on welcoming me into her circle of friends I never felt like an outsider at school. I didn’t know that we’d see each other through first boyfriends, first kisses, heartbreaks, weddings, babies, moves, and more. I didn’t know that she would become the one person who could sit down and list every single fault I have, but would also defend me on every one of them. I didn't know that we'd be so close that she could walk into my kitchen in a house she's never been in and know where I keep everything. I didn’t know we’d have our babies two months apart, and I didn’t know how much closer motherhood could bring us together. I didn’t know that her family was so important to me that the first person I ever trusted my newborn with would be her mother. I didn’t know that I’d love her Mom so much she would become the model for what I wanted when I “grew up.”

But see how God directs our paths? What if we hadn't made friends at camp that year? Now I know how great she is and how much better my life is because of her. I know that she loves my baby almost as much as I do. I know that no matter how flaky I am she’ll still put up with me. I know that when my son is sick, she’ll get up at 2 in the morning to drive us to urgent care then she’ll fill out all the medical forms for me when I have to give him my full attention. I know that she’ll get up early and drive to Krispy Kreme to get me donuts because she knows I can’t get them where I live. I know that her family is going to be my family forever and I feel so blessed. I know that our kids will grow up together and I know that she’ll always be “Aunty Crys.”

I know that even though other people have best friends, they’re probably not as lucky as I am.

So, thank you Lord for AWANA camp. Better yet, thank you Lord for Crystal!

All of this is to say: Happy Birthday Crystal! I love you!

P.S. I also know that she knows I’ve only sent birthday presents on time twice in the last 17 years. This year will not be #3. =/