12 Days of Thanksgiving: Day 4

For what I have received may the Lord make me truly thankful. And more truly for what I have not received. --Storm Jameson (Journey from the North, v.2)

Alright, so I've done three days of complete sap. So, I thought I’d start on my friends tonight (not that I don't love all of them - you'll see that I do. But I've never looked into any of their eyes and seen forever!).

I’ve been blessed to have always had awesome friends, and this blessing started at birth. I’ve known Molly Caudle Fincher since…well, before I remember, because I probably met her in the church nursery when I was a couple of weeks old. We grew up at the Fayetteville Cumberland Presbyterian Church together, playing handbells, writing notes on the back of the church bulletin, and wishing we were part of the older kids who got to do more on the Christmas floats than just stick batting on with spray glue. We didn't go to school together until high school, but we took LCHS by storm, where we made up ridiculous nicknames for boys we liked and girls we despised (and, if one of us had a person we were currently loathing, the other was on board with that hatred too), shared lockers, faked an interest in soccer, and went on an awesome trip to Germany, where we learned about culture, history, and the song "Hey ho, Captain Jack, bright me back to the railroad track." We went our separate ways for college but celebrated with an infamous trip to New Orleans and some fun times at Pat O'Briens that neither of us will forget.

Ahhh, good memories. Eventually we grew up, and we're still good friends. I’m thankful for Molly, because we are so much alike and yet completely different, but understand each other in a way no one can unless they’ve seen you go from smocked dresses and ruffled panties to braces and bad hair to prom dresses to maternity clothes. I’m thankful we have little ones born the same year and that they’ll grow up as friends like we did.

I have a couple of super-awesome pics of me and Molly as four-year olds and then again when we were in junior high. And I'm all for humiliation, but alas, I have no digital image and we got rid of our scanner because we never used it. I like these better though...