Mud & Make-up; Puddles & Purses: Sweet Reunion

I've spent the past 24 hours with some of the dearest souls. It is so good for my heart! My college years were really wonderful and I hate that so many of those girls are so far away from me now. We have gone through years of doing so well being in touch, and years where we were terrible. But no matter what, when we get together, it's like we haven't missed a beat (part of that, we realized this week, is the beauty of Facebook- for all it's annoyances and flaws, I'll stick with it for this reason alone)! It's amazing how that happens though, when you truly have a heart of love for someone. It's doesn't even matter that some are not so good at keeping in touch- we all let it go because we have a genuine love for one another. There is no judgment, and because of that, there is a peacefulness about our relationships with one another that is just so beautiful and refreshing despite our differences. This struck me this weekend- we are all SO very different in SO many ways. It's incredibly rich and stretches you to think beyond where you normally do.

Anyhow, we had a great weekend of togetherness. We went to an outdoor concert, stayed up REALLY late looking at pictures, reminiscing and telling stories, sharing struggles and heartache (sometimes involving tears), shopping, eating, drinking (not too much), laughing, and laughing, and laughing. AND LAUGHING.

Ah, I love these women. They have such lovely hearts! How amazing is it to be around people who love you- really love you- despite all your ugly stuff, your quirks, your snorty laughs. There is no pretense, no holding back, we let it all "hang out", so to speak because we really trust one another. We support each other in all our individual journeys- singleness, dating, kids, wanting kids, careers, marriage, AND, most importantly, working out our faith in each aspect of these stages.

We haven't scheduled a "next" time, but I'm already beyond excited to be with them again. I'm ready to see my kids- I always miss them no matter how much I need a break- but I'll be sad to leave tomorrow, too. There were a few "dear souls" missing this weekend, but I want to give a shout out to Angie James- THANK YOU for initiating this. You are the reason this reunion happened! I cannot even remotely tell you how sad I am that you missed it. Next time, we will make sure you can come :)

Here are just a couple of pics from our time.