  Something about old friends and new friends. It is amazing that you don't have to give up one set for another.
God just creates a little more room in your heart for the new ones. Gwenette - what can I say about her? She's my best. She is a pillar of faith, stronger than I ever imagine to be. She has seen me stupid and not so stupid. And loved me through it all. She is my pillow, my cushion. She is the soft, but not too soft one.
We never would have met if it hadn't been for God's directing me to a particular daycare where she just happened to work. I ended up sending my kids there for only a week but in that time she and I just knew that it was a friendship meant to be. As I moved on to find other daycare, we kept in touch. She was the first one I called when my mother died. She dropped everything for me. She was headed to a wedding and called someone to take her own mother so she could spend the day with me helping me to prepare for the trip I needed to take. I was so amazed that someone could care so much as to do that for me. Those memories and the feelings that go with them will never leave me.
I really can't express how much our friendship means to me. Claudia - you'd have to know her to appreciate her. She is my bestest. God brought us together in THE most amazing way. There we were, both at church at a pie social. He spoke to each of us to go and say hello to the other one. And there we sat, questioning if He really meant us.
Finally the Holy Spirit was so plain and clear about it (I thought everyone could hear him telling me), I just had to go over and say hello. But then what? Well, He would have to take care of that. And that He did. He knew that right then we both needed each other and He literally put us in each other's paths. We've been through so much together that I couldn't begin to write about it. And I really wouldn't want a lot of it out there because it's a personal thing.
But suffice it to say that she and I rode the waves of life, taking turns holding each other's head above water. Some of those waves were small caps - you could almost enjoy the ride. Other waves were like hurricanes and we had to fight to stay above water. But that's what friends are for, they carry you when you don't have the energy to even crawl by yourself.
Claudia's friendship is carried in the innermost part of my heart. Words could never describe what she means to me. She is more than a friend, she is my sister. To make it even more special she is my chosen sister because God chose her for me. I sit speechless with tears in my eyes when I think of all we've been through. And for anyone that knows me, they know "speechless" isn't a word used often to describe me. I have many other friends at many other levels but these four (the old and the new) are the best of the best.
And God is at the center of each of our relationships and that is what makes them work. I love each and every one of them in a little different way from the other yet it's all from the heart. If I can believe that God brought the right female friends into my life at the right moment in time, then why is it so hard to believe that He will bring the right man into my life? I guess that's another blog in itself....... 
