Belated but Beloved

My very oldest friend (as in longevity, not age) had a birthday on Thanksgiving Day and I totally forgot to call her.  Don't you hate it when you do that?  No excuse is good enough, there is no "do-over", I just plum forgot.  

Christie, I am so sorry.  Please know that not a birthday of yours goes by without me thanking God for your birth......for putting you on this earth for someone like me.  Our friendship is nothing short of a divine appointment.  

I don't even remember meeting Christie......she is a part of my earliest memories.  Our families lived in Virginia, her dad was military and mine worked for the government.  We went to private school together and attended the same church, her mom was my first piano teacher.  Our families would get together and we would catch fireflies and watch Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and pretend to have fallen asleep hoping our parents would let it turn into a slumber party.  My parents made Christie's parents our guardians, which was no small undertaking since there were 5 of us (only 3 when they agreed.......heehee).

We moved to New Mexico half way through my 3rd grade year and eventually Christie moved to Japan and then Hawaii.  We sent cassette tapes back and forth and boy do I wish I still had those.  As it turns out, we both ended up at Baylor - in the same dorm, on the same floor.  I spent several holidays at her parent's house since by now my family was in Michigan and hers was in San Antonio.  Do you see God's hand in all of this??  He obviously knew that this was a friend I was going to need forever.

I can thank only Christie for my husband.  After graduation Christie and I moved in together in Houston.  In the same apartment complex lived a friend of hers who had a roommate that was named Scot.  Just over 2 years later, Christie's dad was at the front of the church performing our wedding ceremony.  

Christie is one of the most giving people I've ever met.  She is incredibly creative and very outgoing.  I lived vicariously through her during our dating years.......or should I say her dating years and my very non-dating years.  Christie has a HUGE group of friends that love and adore her, and yet she still has a knack for making you feel the most important of them all.  She loves God with her whole heart and inspires me to live a better life.  She is an incredible wife and mother and picked one of the best little girl's names I've heard to date.

Christie, thank you for being my "I can't remember life without you" friend.  I can't imagine what life would have been like without you.  Is it presumptuous to say that God sent you to earth just for me??  I love and adore you and hope maybe in some small way this makes up for me forgetting your special day!!