(Christmas Party 2012, Courtney, Me, & Leah)

I think it’s time to take a moment and thank some very important people in my life. God knew what I needed at the time when I felt like my life was falling apart. Now that most of the drama is finally out of my life and I’m looking around at the wreckage left behind, I’m realizing how little of a mess it really is thanks to some people who were here to help me pick up the pieces of my heart. I don’t believe that there are any accidents in life and while I have spent the last few years not being the greatest friend in the world thanks to my own selfishness these amazing women were still right here.

Be warned this is just going to be incredibly cheesy (see the post below) but they are worth all the sappiness I must spread.

Abbey – My best friend and the girl who lives far away but has kept her phone open to any and all of my desperate moments. She took a bus up for one day after everything happened just to be here with me. She knows my tendency to withdraw into myself when bad things happen and she didn’t want that to happen. I’m always thankful that I have her in my life, but especially now she’s always here with a caring word or a witty response to how my heart is hurting.

Kaitlyn – My oldest friend who has been such a sounding board. She only had her heart broken a short while before I did and yet she’s always there for me. The distance between us can’t keep our friendship apart. She continually proves to me her patience and love just by being there. Even as a school teacher when I would text her at God knows what time of the night.

Courtney – Words cannot describe how grateful I am for this woman. From the very beginning she was there. She didn’t let me sit alone and she didn’t let me focus on my pain. She was there to help me move everything from my past life out and she never said a word. I can’t imagine where I would have been without her close by.

Kendra, Addie & Jenny – I feel like my sisters have collectively all been there for me. Even though we’ve disagreed on things over the years they immediately embraced my heartache and made me feel like I had a place to return to. A special thank you goes to my sister Kendra and her amazing husband Adam. They opened their home to me when I had nowhere to go and gave me the strength to start over.

Leah – Truly an amazing woman. I admire her strength so much and over the hard few months I had, I relied on her words to help me through it. She had been down a similar path in life and she made me realize that everything would be all right over time.

Kelsey – I feel like she’s been renewing me spiritually and it was something I needed greatly. When I was feeling my lowest God brought her to me with an idea to start a woman’s group that would focus on supporting each other through His love. I can’t describe how much this group of women means to me and I’m looking forward to it leading me back into a close relationship with Him.

Lauren & Samantha – I put these two together because they both became new friends after everything had happened. They knew nothing or very little of my life before him and they’ve been amazingly loyal ever since. Lauren makes me laugh at every situation I’ve had to face and has been known to drive the 2 hours just to make the loneliness less. This is an amazing woman. She makes me brave and has shown me how I now have the whole world opened to me. Sam has the biggest heart out of anyone I know and I am amazed by her kindness. She knew I was struggling a while ago and when I mentioned that I wanted to have my Christmas party like in year’s past again so I could feel somewhat normal this Christmas season, she opened her home up to me and a bunch of people she’d never even met before. I will be forever grateful she chose to sit next to me at the beginning of our semester together.

And finally I thank all of you that have read this silly blog, messaged me or sent me such kind words. You all mean more to me then you know. There’s many other close friends who I should mention too because they have given me so much, Nicki, Ariel, Sara, Holland and the list goes on but I’ll have to give a simple thank you because I would be just repeating over and over how amazing my friends are.

You all are exactly what I needed. Thanks for making me happy again. Thank you.