Brenda Beautiful

My sweet friend Brenda has a birthday tomorrow.  She and I have been through the grinder together ... we met when a young foster son of ours (Branden - who remembers him?  Funny kid.) noticed them moving in and stopped to help.  Thus the new-neighbor gift exchange ensued ... I think I sent some bread over with a  note, and she sent back cookies with a note.  We realized quickly that we had much in common, and here we are, some five years later.

Our friendship did go through the wilderness, and we were completely estranged for a long painful period of time.  I mention this only as an encouragement and a witness to the fact that God is bigger than we are.  He not only healed our relationship, but has knitted us together with unbreakable ties ... kind of like those zip-tie things the toy companies use to hold your child's precious gift tight to the packaging, that is nearly impossible to remove?  Well she is the gift and I am the packaging most of the time, and no one's pocket knife or scissors can cut through these ties.

She is sweet, encouraging, a gifted teacher of pre-schoolers (this alone gives her the right to wear the crown in the picture above), strong, steady, and passionate about her faith and her service.  She has a wicked sense of humor and is also the source of much entertainment for me, some of it unintentional ... like when she doesn't get my jokes and and I have to explain them to her, or when she talks to me on facebook after taking Nyquil, or when I take her out in public.  For a knee-slappingly-funny story in this vein, click here.

She will HATE that I'm posting all about her.  Which is a good enough reason to do it.  But really, I just want to say, Happy Birthday my friend - I love you!!


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