Friends Since 7th Grade

When I left Florida back in 1987, I left a number of good friends behind. And I had a very hard time making new ones when I got to Georgia. My old friends in Miami were my lifeline for a very long time. I sound like such an old person, but back in the day before computers and e-mail, kids actually sent handwritten letters in the mail to one another to keep in touch.

I cherished those letters when they came in the mail. I had a number of friends write to me after I moved. Of course, life gets busy, kids are kids and that list of friends eventually dwindled. I had a couple of friends that continued to write letters to me and stay connected. One of those friends is my friend Debra and I love her dearly (friends since 4th grade!). We are still in touch to this day and she came to visit me two years ago in GA. I definitely plan on making to a trip to visit her in the not too distant future.

And then there is Jennifer - and we have also been friends/pen pals since I left Miami. I love Jennifer too. We met in Jr High. I can't believe we have kept in touch for so many years. Almost 30 years. She came to my wedding in 1997 (which meant so much to me) and I went to hers in 2005. (That was actually the last time I had visited my old stomping grounds - it was in 2005 when Jennifer got married. Wow - almost 10 years. Hurricane Dennis decided to make an appearance that weekend! Thank goodness it passed quickly and her wedding went on as scheduled!) We now have families of our own. She has watched me struggle though some things in life, including infertility, and cheered me on when Briana came home. I've watched her go through some struggles as well. She is such a strong person and I admire her very much. 

So, I knew when I went to Miami that I just had to see Jennifer and her husband and meet her adorable kids.

This was us back in the day...

And us now...

And it was amazing to see our kids together...

(Who would have thought that one day we both would have Chinese children - right? LOL! It's really awesome.)

We met at a cool kids entertainment center at a local mall on Thursday afternoon (after visiting the cemetery) so the kids could play. I actually had never been to that particular mall before. I believe it was built after I moved away...

 It was so amazing catching up with Jennifer - in person! I know so much about her life because of e-mail and Facebook, but it was fun talking about all sorts of stuff and reminiscing as well.

Her kids are so adorable. Little Emily...

And Jeremy...

Jeremy made some nice artwork and even made me a picture. So sweet...

Bri and Doug liked the video soccer game...

The kids played for two hours and this little one started to poop out...

We decided to have dinner right at the mall at a restaurant called Mojitos and it was delicious. How good does this look?

 Briana was showing Jeremy how to do "rock, paper, scissors"...

And I brought along one of my favorite Briana dresses to give to Miss Emily. I held on to it for years because I couldn't part with it for some reason. Then I realized I had the perfect person to give it to. I gave it to Jennifer who then handed it to Emily. She loved it! She kept saying "My dress"... 

We ate and then chit chatted some more. Then it was sadly time to go. The kids played some pretend hopscotch before we parted ways...

I told Jeremy I would hang his amazing picture on my refrigerator when I got home. Here it is...

And as for the dress, Jennifer sent me some pictures of Miss E wearing the dress to church. She looked adorable!

My sweetie wearing the dress at age 3...

And now hers..

It was so good getting to see and hug Jennifer again. The visit wasn't long enough! One day I'll be back, but for now, we will continue to stay in touch. Just like we have for all of these years!

After a very full and wonderful Thursday, I knew the next day of our trip (Friday) was going to be absolutely amazing. I was finally going to meet a bloggy/FB friend that I had known for 8+ years - but never met in person. I was beyond excited! More to come...