A Friend Closer Than A Brother

Have you ever had a friendship that you cherish greatly, a friend that is closer than a brother?  I've always wanted a big sister and have blessed to have a sister in a good friend.  I want to share about such a friend.  Although some of you may know her and know who I am speaking of, I'm not sure how she'll feel having her name all over the internet so I  won't mention her name here.........

Our friendship didn't start out in such an obvious way.  We attended the same church for a couple of years but only greeting each other with a simple "Hi, How are you?"  When I came back to Uganda in 2008, her parents were on the list to receive my monthly newsletters.  One day I got an email from my friend asking about child sponsorship after she had read the newsletter at her parents' house.  

She then began sponsoring 3 children (which has been added to over the years).  A few months later, I got an email asking how I would feel about her visiting, meeting her sponsored children, and helping me out in whatever way.  I was all for it as by that time I had had no visitors here in Uganda.

She flew over and we had a wonderful two weeks.  We hung out talking, she helped out at the school in whatever way she saw needed help, and even helped at home doing simple things like washing dishes!  It was the start of a wonderful friendship.  

After she returned to the states we continued emailing.  I've loved it!  I've loved having a friend/sister that I can share life's ups and downs with.  Yes, I have my husband to share with, but there's nothing like having a sister-friend to share with as well!  I look forward to our almost daily emails.

She came over twice more that year.  One of the things that I have loved about our friendship is that she loves Vision of Destiny as much as I do!  It is rare to get a volunteer that can just jump in and help with whatever.  This friend didn't need to wait for me to tell her that something needed to be done.  She could look around and see and do things (and do them well) without even being asked.  She's done things like meet with teachers teaching them how to use our first aid kit, showing them how to clean and bandage a wound, handed out handkerchiefs to all the students and teaching them about how germs are spread.  She's painted classrooms (and chose really fun colors I might add), she's organized shelves, photocopied papers, and been a great advisor to me on what's next with Vision of Destiny.  She's done a ton more but it's a long list and I'm sure you don't want to be reading a super long post!

More than that, she's shared with me when I've grieved, laughed with me over the funny things my kids do, rejoiced with me during the happy times, and what I love most- she can speak into my life when she sees a bump in the road coming up ahead.  She speaks into my life in a way that is not offensive but lets me know that she genuinely cares.  

She knows the desires of my heart for school, for the children, for my family and goes out of her way to make some of those desires a reality.  Like she advocates for new sponsors.  She's helped raise funds for uniforms, food, even rent!  

Recently she really blessed me.  My first experience of having a child here in a different country wasn't the greatest.  Cultural differences were noticed.  I won't go into all those details but it was just plain hard.  So, this year on baby number two, you can imagine the dread I was feeling, worried about repeating the previous experience.

I was amazed yet again when I got an email from my dear friend asking if it would be of help if she came over for a couple of weeks!  Would it be helpful?  Yes, more than helpful.  And it was.  God timed it so perfectly.  She arrived and a day later baby Joelee made her entrance into the world.  My friend stayed with the bigger kids, played with them (read let them get on her nerves for two weeks), and spend hours talking with me.  It was such a refreshing time to me.  It was so much more relaxing than when Jurnee was born!  

And to top it all off, she knows that one of the desires of my heart is that my kids have as close to a "normal" life as possible for missionary kids.  I want them to have some of the simple things that I had as a child, that your children most likely have, but that because of constraints of finances when you live on support, it's just not possible for me to do. 

One of the things that I've been desiring for a long time was for them to have their "own" rooms.  I don't mean just sleeping in their own room (girls in one and boys in the other), but being able to have a room that is decorated for a little girl or a little boy.  Nothing over the top or extravagant, but something like having a comforter on their bed or bed sheets of a color that they like.  

Imagine my surprise!  One of the things she decided to do for us on this trip was to make the kids' rooms look like kids' rooms!  The girls' room now looks like a room for little girls- decorated with pink and purple!  And Yosam's room is now a room for a little boy- complete with Spiderman that he loves so much!  No longer do their rooms just look like rooms that have beds shoved in them just for sleeping.  It's really a room that they can enjoy!  

Take a look at some pictures of the new rooms!

It's such a blessing to have such a friend.  I don't take it at all lightly and appreciate God's gift to me through this friendship.  Words cannot express what my friend's last trip here meant to me, how honored and loved I felt.  It meant more than anything to me that she cares enough about our family to want to be here when our new addition arrived, that she wanted to celebrate with us, and that the desires of our heart are significant enough to her that she wants to make those desires reality.

So, in ending, a very warm thank you to my dear friend and a huge thank you to God for bringing her into our lives!