Hello and Goodbye

For the past week I have been coping with the fact that I have to say goodbye to my sweet Randi. I don't like goodbyes. Especially not this kind. But in the midst of the sadness there has also been the joy of saying hello to another friend, Virginia. When I had to leave my friends in Indiana, it was SO sad. But God met me in the first year in different ways. One way was through a friendship with Virginia. She was the kind of everyday, garage sale-ing, "there's a sale on milk", "I need you to take my kids NOW" kind of friend. Four years ago, Miss V and her family moved away, so we were delighted that they chose to spend their spring break here!

It was great to introduce them to Lulu...
Seeing how all the kids had grown...
Letting the girls dress Lulu up for a fashion show...

(I am constantly telling the kids "Lulu is not your toy!". I guess I stand corrected.)

Slumber parties...

Swimming at their hotel pool...
Reuniting Miss V with her favorite grocery store workers...
And partaking of the yummy goodness of a crisp meat burrito from Amigo's...
She was also so kind as to bless me with these...
I thought I had lost all hope of having Girl Scout cookies this year since I gave them up for Lent and let the cookie monsters around here eat up the ones I ordered. But, alas, God provided through Miss V! I may or may not have had them for breakfast two mornings in a row.

They also gave us some precious gifts they found at an African art show....

(very cute, babe)

You can check out the website here.It means so much to me how our friends realize that Africa is not only Lulu's heritage, but it is also a part of our family identity forever.

How delightful to be together enjoying the blessing of friendship. And, I think I am more keenly aware than ever, what a blessing it is to find true friends.

And those friends can be found in all sorts of different places. I was just wondering the other day if I am weird because I feel so much affection for blog friends that I have never met. Then yesterday, I got the most incredible surprise from a blog friend...
Mandy, whom I have never met, sent me these beautiful flowers with a card saying she knew I had been going through a lot lately and she was praying for me. Can you believe that?! I was blown away by her kindness and compassion. I love that blogging has opened up a whole new world of incredible people to me. So many hello's I hope to make in the years to come of meeting blog friends like Mandy in person.