Internet Friends

The internet is a funny thing.  I know there are a million and one articles out their all over face book about parents and kids being too distracted… about the negative side effects of being on facebook and blogging… and well, this is not one of them.  Nor is this going to be an article in defense of face book or blogging.  Truthfully, like just about EVERY SINGLE OTHER MAJOR ISSUE plaguing Momma’s these days, I kinda think moderation is the key… and I also really don’t enjoy debating… so I just kinda stay out of it.

However, one thing is most certain… I would not have some of the friendships I have today if it wasn’t for face book and blogging and the internet.  Case in point would be my dear friend Sarah.

I can remember years ago when I first took the plunge and made myself a profile on that thing called facebook… like most trends (ie… maxi skirts and Spotify) I was late jumping on to the bandwagon… and I was cautious at first.  I remember making my profile and then searching for friends… friends from high school and college… before too long facebook was suggesting friends for me… and one thing led to another and some how I stumbled across Sarah’s facebook account and then her blog. 

I went to Towson University for one year.  Looking back, it was a difficult year for me.  It was my first year of college and half way through the year, my parents moved to a different state.   It was a year of transitions, sooo many transitions.  I was blessed to get plugged in right away with a Campus Ministry group called RUF.  RUF was a life line for me that year, as I made friends, good solid Christian friends… friends to pray with and run with and go down and eat meals with.  One such friend was Sarah… I was in a Bible study with her and I was prayer partners with her very good friend Lauren.   I remember hanging out in her room and in groups with all of them. 

At the end of the year, my in state tuition had moved to PA and so I too transferred to another school in PA.  (and shortly after that,  yet ANOTHER school… but that is another story for another day)…. bottom line is until 2008, I hadn’t really heard from or talked to Sarah… and then boom I found her blog and I was like, “Oh my goodness, our lives are soooo similar… I LOVE HER…. I wish she lived next door!”  But, she lived in Michigan… we began commenting on each others blogs and facebook posts and suddenly I felt like I knew her whole family quite well. 

Years go by and we end up getting our crew of littles together for lunch at Chick-Fil-A when she was in the area one time… then we started getting together yearly with some other Towson RUF gals over Thanksgiving… and our friendship grew… I was and am still amazed that they include me in this get together, because they spent 4 years together, but I really was only with them for one. 

I often laughed at how we were now texting, and sharing recipes, and reading about each others kids and husbands… marveling at this connection that NEVER would have happened without the internet…. and then Sarah invited my circus crew to her house for a weekend…

I remember asking Scott if he wanted to go to Sarah’s for the weekend… “Hey honey, ya know my friend Sarah, from Towson and blogging… well I know you’ve only met her once but wanna go spend the weekend with her and her family… I know you will get along so well with her husband.” 

Ok… if that situation had been reversed, I would NOT have been game AT ALL… but Scott is not me and he said, “Sure!” 

Sarah and I always had a feeling that our families would click… we knew enough about each other that we just felt like they would gel… but as the date got closer and then we were driving down, there was a part of me that though, “uh-oh… what if we don’t click?”  I remember Scott saying, “So what is it that makes you think Jason and I will get along?”  And I’m all like, “Well, ya know you both love your wives and your family and your both just great guys, you love the Lord and football, and just you’re a lot a like.”

hahahahaha 

What a great response… as if that meant they would click instantly.

But, they did. 

Everyone got along beautifully… truthfully, BETTER than I even thought they would…

We had an amazing weekend… Sarah and I looked over at each other at the pool on Sat and went, “Oh my goodness it worked!… Even better than we hoped.”

It was so relaxing and refreshing… they are so real… that is what I have loved about Sarah through the years… what you see is what you get… no pretenses… she is that girl you read on her blog… in real life…

I loved watching the kiddos play together… seeing their personalities mesh… and the grownups? We sat up talking till way past midnight.. laughing so hard we were crying…. it felt like we had known them for years even though really Scott and Jason just met that weekend. 

It was an amazing weekend and I am so glad Sarah took a risk and invited us and so glad we took a risk and went… and I am so so so glad for this thing called facebook and blogging and the internet… that connects people in a way unlike any other… I can’t wait to do it again!  Thanks Sarah and Jason!