Happy Birthday!

Today is my best friend's birthday. For 13 days she will be 2 years older than I am. Tee hee....

Let me tell you about my best friend. She and I hated each other upon meeting. I had just moved to the little town the summer before 8th grade. We had been placed in the same home room. At first I was happy to see I was not the only person in the world with wild, unmanageable, naturally curly hair. I could take a hint, however, that I was stepping on to someone else's territory.

The first half of the school year we tolerated one another's presence. She was the most popular girl in school, and I was not. In fact, I was booed when I won the costume contest that Halloween. How dare the "new girl" win.....I couldn't help that I was more creative than my fellow classmates, especially in the realm of costumes.

One day, I saw her crying in home room. Oh the drama!! I did feel bad for her, however, because she was a very strong and influential individual, and to see her crying made me feel a twinge of pain....I didn't know what was wrong, but I knew if it were me, it would've made my heart break, too.

I wrote her a note. Something like, "I know we don't talk at all, but I saw you crying. I hope everything will be alright, and if it isn't, just know I'm here to listen." I doubt there was much else to it, as I was in eighth grade and trying to be more mature than I really was.

That note spurred a frenzy of note-writing back and forth. I don't think we actually spoke to one another until we had been writing notes to each other for a good month. I don't remember our first verbal conversation. What I do remember, however, is that this girl and I became the best of friends.

Our yearbook signings became a contest to see who could write the longest "book". We shared in one another's happy moments, and shed tears on the other's behalf in times of trial. We laughed at our possessed vehicles, and I will never forget going "Thanksgiving Caroling" around the neighborhood.....

Two wild-haird crazy coots, (us) became inseperable. We are, in so many ways, the same person. Yet we are, in so many ways, completely different. She has been there for me in the best of times, the worst of times, we have fought, we have laughed, we have disagreed, we have completed each other's sentences......She is my sister in Christ, and I know we were brought together to serve Him with our unique and treasured relationship.

So, Tigger, on this day I want to wish you very Happy Birthday. You mean more to me than you may realize, and goodness knows where I'd be without your faith, your honesty, and your sense of humor. I love you, T, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY!