30 Day Blog Challenge: Day 9

Yes, I’m posting this a day late.  Honestly, I was trying to think of a way to just kinda ease past this post without doing it.  Because the topic is

A Picture of Your Friends

And when I think of the word friend, Sue immediately pops into my mind.  The passing of time since March 5th has been almost surreal.  Life without Sue in it is . . . different.  Not a day goes by that I don’t miss her. 

BUT  . . . God has been gracious.  Over and over again this year, I’ve had opportunities to meet with people that I never would have dreamed it would be possible for me to meet.  I’m almost afraid I’m going to let someone out, so I’m not even going to try to include everyone.  If your picture isn’t here, that doesn’t mean I don’t love you, ok?! 

Right now, I’m just mainly thinking about my job and what a blessing it has been as it has allowed my family the chance to travel to various places throughout this year that we might not have had opportunity to go to otherwise.  In April, we went to Cincinnati to represent The Old Schoolhouse Magazine at the Midwest Convention.  In addition to meeting many of my Crew mates, I finally got to meet my amazing assistant, Brenda!  Many days, I wonder what I’d ever do without this special lady in my life.  When it comes to our jobs, we definitely complete each other, that’s for sure! 

  In May, we traveled to Florida under the guise of attending their homeschool convention as well.  However, a trip to Florida is never complete without a visit with Mickey!  On our very first day in the parks, we ran into my friend Wendy’s family.  I had never met them in person, but I knew they were vacationing at Disney the same week as we were, so I was watching.  I met Wendy through my work with the Crew and have been blessed over and over again by her friendship.  Wendy and two of her children are actually coming to visit us in a few weeks – for a whole week! 

Another Florida blessing was meeting Becky.  Becky is another great lady that I met through the Crew.  The neat thing about Becky is that she knew (of) me long before I knew of her.  She had seen my name, photo, and articles in various issues of TOS and she felt a connection with me.  She had been praying that we would someday meet and be friends.  Her prayers were answered.  This lady is such a source of encouragement to me.  My only wish is that she didn’t live so far away (but, truth be told, I’m just jealous that she is in Florida, and I am not!)

This summer, the kids and I met up with another Crew mate and my new TOS assistant, Jodi.  Our kids hit it off, and so did we.  Truthfully, it’s a little bit scary how much Jodi and I have in common.  I swear she leaves a comment on my blog almost daily that says something along the lines of “me too!”  LOL  When I was looking for another assistant, I remember telling Gena that I really wanted to have Jodi because “she  gets me”. :)  We’ll be hooking up with them again in a few days for a fall field trip – yeah!

I talk to each of these ladies on a daily basis – usually through e-mail (but sometimes I get to hear their voices on the phone too).  In God this year, I have seen such a picture of parenting.  My parents were always so good at making sure that I was surrounded by friends when I was an only child.  God, now, is doing that same thing in my life. :)