Week 8- A Friend I...

So this week I write about a friend.

I have a few friends I could have written about, but I want to write about a friend I miss. A friend who has known me since my boys were young, even before one was born. She has been there for a lot. She probably knows all of my secrets, even the ones you never want anyone to know. I trust her to guard them, and I know she trusts me as well.

This woman took me in when I needed to be protected ( not physically but emotionally) and she has helped me through so much!  I am talking about Amy.

Always has a smile!

She was my boss when I worked for Lifetouch in Target. In all honesty, we just clicked. 

She understood me, and I understood her. She made something that had been a hobby for me to become a passion. she inspired me to be more than just a photographer. she inspired me to believe in myself. without her, I never would have believed I could do this: 

Or even have a day where I said this:

She is the type of friend where I can not see her for months and when we get back together it is like we were never apart. Together, we have photographed babies, weddings, and fathers & mothers going off to war who wanted one last memories with and for their children (just in case). We have taken first photos, and last family photos. We have created birth announcements, Christmas cards, Chanukah cards, and even valentines day and Easter cards.   We have helped families with children with disabilities get the photos they never thought they could of their children. we have pulled our hair out trying to get that one perfect photo for that one mom (and often, I am that one mom).  I feel like what we do together is so important because of that. 

From our digital conversion.

I am no longer working at the studio with her, but I am still friends with her. Yay! 

Crazy pictures we took so many years ago!

We text and talk. We message. We listen. We forgive. And she is the only person to ever dress my boys in dresses!

This is Logan at about 2 in one of Amy's daughters nightgowns!

Ok well, a nightgown, and hair and makeup. but she loves these boys like they were hers. and she has fun with them like they were hers!

We go out for walks, and go to trampoline parks, and just plain have a blast together, but we also can be really serious together as well.

This picture is the result of the first time we met. I wanted to do Photos for Steve for Father's day, and I stopped by the studio. Amy was working. I was in my maternity yoga pants that I wore all the time, and a tank top. The boys were in mismatched shades of green. She said, "OK, do you want to schedule an appointment so you could plan their outfits?" I said, "no, these look OK, we can just take pictures like this." She and I still laugh about that moment. She brought my boys in the studio, pulled their shirts off, and did some shirtless brother photos, so cute by the way.

 Then, she had me stand there, and she rolled my pant legs up. The next thing I knew I was "in" the pictures, and before I knew it, I was IN the pictures:

By the time I left the studio, I had amazing pictures, and a part time job, and little did I know it, But I also had a friendship. 

The next session was much better...

This picture of these boys is still my favorite to this date, and I cannot believe that I only have it in hard form, and a thumbnail digital copy.

 I even felt better about being in these pictures.

That is what Amy's friendship has done for me.
It has helped me to be a better me. She has helped me discover things about myself I would have never believed. I am so grateful for her support, her love, and her willingness to drive from the southernmost part of RI to Cranston to watch me sing in a concert,

 or to meet me in East Providence to go to a trampoline park,

or to meet me at Edaville Railroad on a rainy winter night,

 just so we can spend time together. She is always there. Even when we have had our issues, we have always found our way through them, and I am so grateful for that!

We may not be a team at the studio anymore, but I will never forget the lesson I learned there! I will also always be thankful for the friendship!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Stop by www.aisforadelaide.com and see more posts about friendships! Or join in the challenge! 

Friends like these.

So. Last weekend we were hit with a really big snow storm. This weekend, not a huge storm, but adding 3-4 inches meant a parking ban in our city, which means no church. Note the picture of how we spent our morning at home. We do not have our own parking lot. We have to park on the street, and thanks to the kindness of our neighbor across the street, many members of the church park there, but it is a grocery store, so we have to be mindful of their customers.
I miss church. A lot of my friends are there, my children gain their few hours with their friends who are godly children, and it is a place where we as parents can recharge while our children are safe with others.
I have been wrestling with how much private school costs, and with how far away they are from us.
It is on my heart, and in my prayers. I wish that I had no reservations about it, but I do, and so I will wait.
See? Even when it is about the snow, it is about not being in quite the right place right now. I want for my children to have friends every day like the ones they have on Sunday, and with two Sundays away, miss those friendships.