Day #12. Too busy EXPERIENCING joy to write about it. :)

Well,  I'm going to do a few days at a time today since I got a bit behind.  But so many great things have been going on (and a few not so great things) that actually posting about my daily joy hunt findings got put at the bottom of the list. But I have been finding a lot of joy lately! 

So let's pretend that each of these days was actually posted on the day I'm talking about, k?


Day #12:  Sleepover with one of my favoritest friends ever, Heather. 

We seriously just picked up where we left off. Isn't that the coolest when you can do that with a friend you haven't seen in 4 years?  And she didn't even really know my kids but after 5 minutes she was their honorary aunt.  It is such a gift to get to be with people who "get you."  You know what I mean? We are all blessed with lots of people who know us, who love us, who serve us, or like us, but I think we only get a handful of people in our whole lives who totally, 100%, "get us," inside and out.  Heather is one of my precious handful.  :) 

Heather and I started to become friends just a few months before my sister, Lindsay, died--I was 14, my sister was 17, and she was killed a few days after Christmas in a car accident as we were driving from Colorado to Utah.  My two older siblings were serving foreign missions for our church, my mom broke her neck in the accident, and my soul mate/best friend/sister/confidant/piano buddy/singing buddy/everything was gone.  Just like that. Gone.

The days, weeks, months, and even years that followed were gut-wrenching and really hard.  There were lots of days I cried so hard I couldn't breathe.  I really had to dig deep for faith and peace and perspective.  I knew it then, but I felt it even more this weekend, that Heather was sent into my life, right at that time,  as a gift to help me find the strength to get through.  She's such an amazing question asker and listener--and so many of those late night sleepovers we used to have were actually just therapy sessions where I got to hear myself think and process through how I felt, and renew my eternal perspective on life.  We each had a toothbrush at each other's house and we would wear each other's pajamas and then bring them back, clean, for the next sleepover.  We would just talk and talk and talk and talk until one of us finally fell asleep (or until it was time to go sunrise waterskiing--we actually did that once. ha.)  I found so much joy this weekend in gaining a better understanding of how friendship really can be a gift from God.  Int his life I won't every know the reasons why God didn't save Lindsay's life--but over the last 12 years I can see so many ways that He has saved mine.  I can see so many people and experiences and opportunities and lessons that He has given to me that are perfectly tailored to my needs and my struggles. So many ways that He has dropped little postcards from Heaven to let me know He is aware of me and has plans for me.  It is utterly amazing. 

So, that's a whole lotta joy for day 12.