The More We Get Together

"The more we get together, together, together...

The more we get together the happier we'll be.

Cause your friends are my friends,

And my friends are your friends.

So the more we get together the happier we'll be!"

Designated by the nearly certified Kindermusik teacher, Jennifer Cleveland (Stapleton), the above was our theme song for the visit. Honestly, this visit was much anticipated and yet surreal. It came and went, and I didn't have much to say about it. It was almost as if it was a nice dream I had. Seriously.

Jennifer, my friend from college (5 years and more ago!) emailed me to let me know that she was coming through and was going to stop in Mobile to see Hope (my roomate from college). Since that is only a hair less than 2 hours from me, I decided I'd go too. Yes, I was invited.

Hope Coons (Baldwin) had recently given birth to her first daughter, Anna Beth. She was just 4 wks. old this past Monday! So we all gathered at her house to be together. No real reason it seemed other than to just be in each others' presence and soak up all the reality that life goes on and on. And that is pretty much what we did. Jen and I tried to keep Hope off of her feet. It was tough. I remember feeling like I had to be Supermom, and that I had to play hostess when there were visitors. We just talked mostly about motherhood and our children, shared some of our choice morsels of motherhood success secrets, and such like that.

Our children became instant friends which really did make me wish that we could be closer literally and figuratively. They were a joy to watch. I did find it ironic that the "old" versions of ourselves came out a bit. Jen, the social coordinator was going and blowing. I couldn't help but throw in some "ghetto" humor. We both had to embarrass Hope by talking about sex in front of her husband. It was good...really good.

A weird thing came over me when it was time to ride home, I became sad, truly sad. I have not felt strong emotions in quite a while so it was both surprisingly nice and unusual. I was very reflective on the way home, you know us always trying not to over analyze even though we can barely help ourselves. I thought of how nice it was to be with women. I thought of how nice it was to be with friends. I thought of how refreshing it was to be with Christ followers...all with similar issues, questions, problems, etc. Experience was swapped along with encouragement and the reassurance that you're not alone, and that you will be prayed for. It wasn't "like before." How could it be really. It was what it was; comforting, fun, relaxing, long overdue.