Wednesday, June 16, 2010

My Gal Pals

The history of my gal pals: a 13 year journey of friendship

1997
I was 8 or 9 years old (about third grade) and my family had started attending Washington Heights. Stacy Simpson enters the scene! I don't remember anything other than we started playing. a lot. She would come over to my house and visa versa. Our specialties were barbies, dress up, tea parties, and trying to get our older sisters to play with us. No success. When we did finally have success Amy and Emily tricked us into playing a game where they were the queens and we were the servants....yep. Sadly, we went along with it.

Stacy and I were best friends instantly. One day I got my hair cut and apparently Stacy liked it, because the next time I saw her, her hair was cut too. When possible (at the time, I lived in bountiful and she was in ogden), we did everything together. It was also nice for our parents since Stacy had 2 older siblings (Emily and Tommy) the same age as my two siblings. So when we got together the whole gang did too. It was fantastic.

1998
Stacy and I were in 4th grade and a new girl from Oregon was introduced to our Wednesday night church class. Once again, instant best friends, and Stacy and I added Christina Merrigan to our gang. At the time (2nd to 6th grade) I was home schooled, and so was Tina. Our parents set up a home school group with a couple other families from church about once a week for "extracurricular activities." It was basically a giant play date. We did, however, learn to play the recorder and held a recital for everyone. We also learned the Olympic art of curling...I probably could've gone pro...jk

So during the week Tina and I would do home school stuff, her and Stacy started taking tumbling classes together, Wednesday nights we all did stuff at church, and then Sunday after church we always tried to play. Tina also had 3 older brothers, and John became friends with Craig. Once again, it was fantastic.

1999
Stacy, Tina, and I were in 5th grade and on Wednesday nights at church they started mixing the 4th and 5th graders together during craft time. This is when we first met Suzy Madigan, but the first time I did anything with Suzy is because my friend Rebekah invited her to a sleep over.

Even though Suzy was a year younger than the rest of us, she still became part of the gang. Probably because she's awesome...I remember thinking that Suzy was the most interesting girl I had ever met. She always had a different way of doing things, even as a 4th grader, and I love that about her. Suzy's older brother, Matt, became great friends with Tommy, John, and Craig, and my parents instantly clicked with hers.

So we became the four amigos.



During high school we started an accountability group. At first, a woman from church named Marlee was our leader for about 6 or so months. She had to stop after that :( but then we all met Sabrina Moulding! Sabrina lead our group through a couple of relationship books, helped us tackle our high school drama, and showed us how to put God first in everything by being an amazing role model. Eventually, Sabrina turned into more than just our leader that met with us once a week. She was our friend, mentor, confidant, and everything else in between.

Over this past weekend I had the honor of being part of Suzy's wedding. David and Suzy chose to have the person in their lives who most influenced them be part of the ceremony as well. It hit me, watching Suzy and Sabrina hug, what being a disciple of God is about, and that I want to influence and lead people like Sabrina has lead me. She's poured out her heart to us girls and was dedicated to our group. She is obedient to God's call in her life and I pray the Spirit will lead me to do the same.

2010
Obviously life has changed a lot since 1997.
Stacy married Jeremy and they have an adorable little boy, Roman. Stacy is just as passionate and full of love as she was when I first met her, and her and Jeremy together are an amazingly Godly couple. I honestly believe God is going to use them to bring His love to Ogden.

I have enjoyed watching Tina and Dave grow together over the years and through their marriage, and seeing them follow God by being true servants. Tina is one of the hardest working girls I know. She's full of determination, drive, and persistence, but she's also the sweetest person you'll ever meet.

and most recently, Suzy and David got married over the weekend! Congrats you two! Suzy is an amazingly strong and genuine woman. Even though I'm sad they're moving to Florida, I know God has a huge plan to use the way they pour their hearts into the lives of the people around them.

I've already told you about the fabulous person Sabrina is but let me add on that her and Travis are an incredible couple. They're always striving to know more about God and live for him. Ok, that should do it :)


So that's that :)
I know this post was extremely long but I write about what I love, and I do love my gal pals.

"Because they are united in love, I pray that their hearts may be encouraged by all the riches that come from a complete understanding of the full knowledge of the Christ, who is the mystery of God." Colossians 2:2