10 years...a story of true friendship part 2

Yesterday I shared how I met my best friend Kristin.  And just how perfect God knit our lives together. So if you missed it check it out first before reading this.  Our middle school and high school years were alot of fun.  That is one thing I remember about those days.  Some fun memories are the younger years playing in her neighbors corn field.  For some reason I remember that being a blast.  Also I remember in 5th grade we thought it would be cool if Aaron was my boyfriend and if I ended up marrying him then we could be "real" sisters :)  Haha...so there you have it folks Aaron was my "first" boyfriend, but that wasn't meant to be I think it only lasted like a week, but God has blessed us both with wonderful spouses today :) Another thing I remember about those years were fried green tomatoes.  Random I know but her mom made them and I had never heard of them and I thought they were awesome!  My mom and I enjoy them still today!  Oh yes I also remember we were into the American dolls.  She had Samantha and I had Molly.  And we enjoyed playing with those together.  I have actually had friends that knew me then ask me if I named my daughter after that doll! Definitely didn't mean too but I will share that Molly is named after Kristin.  My daughters name is Molly Kristin Hayes.  And we decided on that name because I wanted her to have Kristin's name and Molly actually means Joyful and Kristin means Christian.  And Kristin was a Joyful Christian to me and I pray my Molly will grow into a joyful Christian as well :)

notice the art work to make this photo frame :) those days digital framing wasn't available haha :)

 

beginning of our friendship

 Also during the middle school/high school days I would occasionally go to church with Kristin, sometimes for a fun hang out times or to the worship service.  I will be honest I never really felt comfortable there mainly because I had never been exposed to such friendly people in a church environment and people openly talking about God.  Also the worship service was way different than anything I had ever seen.  So I was just uncomfortable in this new environment. I always viewed myself as a good person, so if anyone ever asked me about if I was a Christian I would say yes, because I thought the definition of a Christian was a good person, someone who had morals.  It may have been a "small" thing spiritually to bring me to church but I see it was these seeds that soften my heart to consider true Christianity and be open to investigating it in college. 

In high school we had a habit of writing each other notes.  For some reason I kept a few.  I am a bit of a sentimental personality so I suppose that is why but I am grateful today to have these to remind me of our sweet friendship.  

notes I saved

movie stubs I saved..even the ones from Aruba!

Also in high school once I was driving we would save our money and then go get dinner and see a movie together.  This may not sound awesome to you but I LOVED doing this with her!  I remember loving going to Chili's together and splitting their peppercorn burger!  Still today when I go there I think of her if I ever order a burger.  It's kinda funny for me to think about now, but I remember one time a guy asked me out when we had planned to go out and I turned him down and then Kristin suggested I invite him to come with us, haha...and he actually did come hang out with us for dinner!  Another thing I always admired about Kristin was she was always so loving to everyone.  Even if I would share how I disliked someone she would never join in with me.  She always had the best smile and was so friendly!

When we graduated we took a trip just the two of us to Aruba.  Her aunt was living there and also was very open about talking about God.  So more exposure to the thought of having a relationship with God I saw there.  We had a wonderful fun time!  And one thing we did I still can't believe I did was we went scuba diving!  If you know me I am a chicken! I am still amazed she got me to do that with her!  But we really had a memory filled time there.  Once we graduated from HS we went to different colleges.  For a long time I really wondered why we did that!  Seemed  unbelievably crazy to me not to go through that season together.  But I really see now God was up to something and this was all part of His plan :)  And I will share our college life story of friendship with you tomorrow :)

Praising God and thanking Him for this gift of friendship :)