I love this quote -
"Friendship is one mind in two bodies." That quote describes my friendship with Emily. We think alike, often finishing each others sentences, yet we are two different bodies.
I don't like to use the term 'best friend' (although I often do). I have been incredibly blessed with a lifetime of close, close friends. In fact, most of my close friends I would consider my 'best friend'. So how can you single out one person as a best friend? I have had many friends by my side throughout different walks in life. And I am who I am as a result of those friendships. And at some point, that friend has been my best friend.....so I like to include all my close friends as best friends.
I have a story with each friend. But I want to share my story now about Emily.
Emily and I met in college. We were both nursing majors. I don't remember exactly where, when, or how our friendship blossomed....it just did. We always tried to get into the same classes and the same clinicals. Clinicals are what I remember the most. We were always sneaking into the others room to help each other out. One of the unfortunate things about nursing school is learning to give a bed bath. I say unfortunate because that's how I felt at the time. It was gross and I didn't like getting that 'close' with strangers. Although, as I matured through school, I realized how rewarding a bed bath is. For those patients who are completely helpless or just simply have difficulty with those duties, it is a rewarding job. To give them a sense of dignity, to care about their hygiene as much as they do, to step in and help them with those activities of daily living that they can't accomplish without assistance....it is actually rewarding! Okay, off my soapbox and back to my story - often times Emily and I would help each other out when that duty called. It's easier to move comatose patients around for a bed bath when you have help. Granted, I'm sure our instructors wanted us to learn to do this independently because in the real world you won't always have help. But Emily and I were
always helping each other (even if we had to sneak around to help the other)
Our senior year of nursing school, we decided to take our community clinical at a low-income clinic in South Dallas. We signed up to do this together, just the two of us. I must admit - working in this specific community, it was scary and unclean. We could have done what the majority of the other students did and work in a community clinic that does well-child check-ups for the less fortunate, etc..... Not Emily and I. We signed up, together, to work at the clinic that was basically a shelter/base for the mentally ill that were left on the streets, prostitutues, etc... We would personally drive some of these people to their doctor's appointments when they were sick beyond our means of caring for them. I will admit, it was scary to be in the car with someone we barely knew who 1) was actively mentally ill 2) a sex addict 3) had a history of prison time 4) had multiple STD's, etc... *Emily - if you don't remember his name, I remember it perfectly!* But together, Emily and I did it. We worked together and learned from it.
Somewhere along the way, Emily and I both decided we wanted to be Operating Room nurses. Graduation was approaching and we were interviewing for Operating Room internships at various hospitals around town. We were both accepted to several different hospitals, but in the end, we took positions at different hospitals. And from that point on, we never lived in the same city again, never worked together as 'nurses' again......but the friendship continued to flourish! Even though we were both very busy with work, we always had stories to tell about our Operating Room experiences, our current roommate situations, relationships, etc...
Time went by..... we both got married within a month of each other! And we both married handsome men quite older than us! We celebrated with each other at our weddings.....
And then that day came.....
I remember exactly where I was. I was in the parking lot of Target and I called Emily while I was sitting in the car. She answered the phone and I told her
I was pregnant! And even more exciting was her response, '
I think I'm pregnant, too!' Did we plan this together? No. Had we really talked much in the past about when we would start our families? No.
Sure enough, Emily was pregnant and we were due within
three weeks of each other!! It wasn't planned that way, we never discussed it before, it was simply God's plan for us.
Forward through all the shopping we did together in preparation for our babies, forward through the lunches we had together where Emily had a wash cloth over her mouth the entire time in fear of vomiting, forward through the days I visited her in the hospital with my big belly while she was there on bed rest with her big belly....
On April 22nd and May 14th of 2004, Emily and I gave birth to beautiful baby
GIRLSIt was meant to be. God knew I needed someone to ride beside me on that journey there forward, and he gave it to me.
Sydney Pearl and Ashlan Reese
The best grandmother's EVER! Mimi and Memomma!
I do not want to exclude Brent from any of this. God brought us together and I am most thankful for that. Brent is my rock, my safety, and every bit of my heart and soul belongs to him. The day I married Brent is still the happiest day of my life. Without Brent, I wouldn't have Ashlan and so much love and purpose in my life. I love you so much, Brent! But Brent also understands my relationship with Emily. He knows we need each other. Emily and I have talked every single day for over 5 years. If we did miss a day of talking, it was only because we played phone tag all day. If we don't talk on the phone, we email, we text.... every single day. We go crazy if we don't talk to each other. When we are on vacation or out of the country, we still try to phone or email EVERY DAY! The continual downside to our friendship is we don't see each other enough. But when I think about it, that is probably what keeps us so close. We live almost 40 minutes from each other, we have different sets of friends, she now has a beautiful baby boy, and our lives, physically, don't cross as often as we'd like. But we still understand each other, cherish our conversations, LOVE the time we spend together in person, and love each other dearly.
We laugh at the other's mistakes, give advice to each other that is sometimes hard to hear, pray for each other, cry for each other whether we understand the hurt or not, vent to each other about every aspect of life, shop with each other and buy matching clothes like we are little kids, cry for each other's child when they are hurt or sick, send get-well packages to each other, send 'thank you for being my friend' packages to each other, and the list continues...........
So you can
ONLY imagine how we feel about our girls being friends! And Ashlan and Sydney have been friends since birth. No, Ashlan and Sydney won't grow up in the same schools, they won't have the same set of friends, they will probably have different interests, they probably won't go to the same college, they probably won't ever be roommates, but those details do not matter. What matters is that they will always have each other.
Below are just a handful of the hundreds of pictures we have of the girls together....
Like I mentioned above, I have a story with every friend! But I love what Emily and I
have been through,
are going through, and
will be going through together.
"A friend is one who strengthens you with prayers, blesses you with love and encourages you with hope."