We were a little nervous. We’d never been to their home before and here they had invited us to celebrate their son’s 1st birthday with them. We pulled up and squeezed our Hyundai Scoop in behind a few other cars. There were a lot of people here. We unbuckled our son, popped the trunk and got our gift out of the back. Linking fingers, we walked up the sidewalk towards the house. We heard a lot of voices coming from the back yard. “Do we go to the front door or just walk around back?” I asked Devon. “Let’s just go around back,” he said.
We gingerly rounded the corner only to be greeted by the church pastor. “Hey! Welcome!” After a few introductions, Chris Ann came out from her kitchen door, walked over and thanked us for coming. We plopped our son on the blanket under the tree with Chris Ann’s son and preceded to make small talk with a group of people who obviously knew each other pretty well. We were the new kids on the block. “Yes, we just moved back from Colorado…No, we’re both from Maryland…We’ve visited the church a couple of times…Devon is training at a French restaurant in the kitchen. Yes, this is our first son.”
I don’t remember much more about that day, only to say, it still felt somehow right that we were there. Devon and Todd seemed to talk to each other pretty easily, our boys were the same age and Chris Ann and I had conversations yet to be had, lingering between the awkwardness of just having met.
After extending an invitation for Todd, Chris Ann and their son to join us the following week for our son’s 1st birthday, we left with friendship possibilities plowing us forward, to explore more.
READ PART 1 HERE.
This is the second part of our Friendship Story. You can read Part 1 HERE. We’ve had so many people ask us about it, we thought it was about time we began to write it out and share it. We’ve been friends for 18 years…there is so much to tell! Just to give you a glimpse, we lived in the same neighborhood while raising out first 7 (Kristin 4, Chris Ann 3) children. We sold both of our homes within a month of each other with Chris Ann’s family moving back to Minnesota and Kristin’s family traveling the world. We wanted a way to see each other, so a few years ago, we started a business. (And our plan is working!) Thanks for joining us on this journey! It will be fun to share with you how our friendship has grown throughout the years.
