Our Great Friends....

We have some really, really good friends. I’ve talked about them on here a couple of times…they were our neighbors when we moved into our first house in 2001 at the young and somewhat naïve age of 21. They had two little girls – the oldest was 2 ½ and the youngest was just 5 months old when we moved in. I remember seeing the lady pushing her double stroller around the neighborhood each night after work. She would stop and talk to hubby, yet I had no idea who she was. A couple weeks after moving in we officially met them. As a neighborhood we would all gather in the court in the evenings and talk and hang out. I remember the first time I met the oldest little girl…she didn’t talk much, and she was off by herself moving this little chair. She would sit in it, and then get up and move it to another place…she did this for about ½ hour. I talked to her while she did it, and finally she trusted me enough to talk back to me.

The husband and I didn’t get off to a good start at first…he was very concerned that I was “supporting” the family because I had a job and hubby didn’t. I got into so many arguments with him over this – but I later learned it was just part of his personality…he was “stirring the pot” as he still tells me to this day.

We all quickly became very good friends…hubby and I would go over to their house almost every night (I’m not joking) to hang out with them and play with their girls. We often took the girls for a weekend so that the parents could have a break (they had no family close by) and also so that we could get our “kid fix.” We desperately wanted kids, but we knew that for our own sanity, we should wait a few years.

Two years after moving in to the house (almost to the day) we had our first little girl. The girls across the street were now 4 and 2 and they were so excited to have another girl! As the years went by we got closer and closer to them. Two years later we had our son, and again, so much love and support from our friends.

We always said that if either of us moved, we’d have to move together…we’d never be able to be apart! And in February of 2006 that’s just what we decided to do! We both signed contracts (along with my parents) to build new houses. Over the next 10 months we went through selling houses, realtor issues and apartment living; and finally in January of 2007 we were reunited again in our new houses.

Their girls are now 9 and 7, my daughter is almost 5, and they play so perfectly together. We’ve been looking forward to the day the oldest can babysit, and how she’ll drive everyone to school when she’s 16. All of our lives revolve around each other. Apparently we’re known as the “neighborhood clique” and people were intimidated to move in by us because they had heard that three out of the five houses on the court knew each other very well. Of course once we met everyone they learned that there’s no clique, just really, really good friends.

A few weeks ago our friend lost his job. He was interviewing with companies out of state. He’s in a specialized field, so there’s not a whole lot for him locally. Last Saturday we found out he took a job in New York. I couldn’t hold back my tears…I seriously felt myself starting the stages of grief…I started off feeling so angry that they were moving. When I told my daughter she immediately burst into tears.

Then this week we hear that maybe, just possibly, the wife and girls might stay behind and not move. The reasoning behind this makes perfect sense. The job he has now isn’t permanent…the job he hopes to move into will allow him to work from home, and he doesn’t want to give up their house. Not only does the housing market suck, but it’s the perfect house for them.

I’ve been praying my heart out that this is what ends up happening. I want them to stay here to badly. I can’t imagine not being able to say “let’s see if our friends want to have dinner,” which is what happens about 3 out of 7 nights in the summer. Or being able to run to them when we need a favor (and visa versa).

That family and those girls are so very important to me, to us, and I really hope that they are able to stay because I really can’t imagine summer nights without them.