Good Friends

Friday night, Eric and I went out with my special ed. team to celebrate our friend Jacob's birthday. We went to this place called Ramsey's (which is my new favorite place), ordered spicy exotic food, and spent a couple of hours just laughing and swapping stories. I love the way it feels to laugh when you know you're among friends--like you don't care if you snort, or make too much noise. Unabashed laughter is my favorite emotion, I think. As we were leaving our boisterous crew, Eric told me something I already know: "You work with good people. What a smart, funny crew. You're fortunate." He's right. Our ages range from 22 to 55-ish, but we share a love of children--and a sense of humor--that's ageless. I am blessed.

Then, last night we went to our Sunday School class's Christmas/New Year's party at the Schmidt's. If you know me at all, you know how much I love being a part of this group. The teaching's always challenging, the fellowship is awesome, and the group is made up of people I'd want to be friends with even if we weren't in the same ABF class. We had a potluck dinner last night, then played a game kind of like Truth or Consequences that helped us get to know each other AND hone our improvisation skills. I learned that I'm a horrible liar. Laughable, even. And that our class has some of the funniest collective stories you could ever put together. We had such a good time, and again Eric and I reminded each other afterward how blessed we are to have good friends.

Tomorrow, I am turning in my survey for where I would prefer to work next year. I have actually filled out 2 forms, requesting 2 different transfers, and I still don't know which one I'll actually turn in tomorrow. Being with friends this weekend reminds me again of how gracious God has been to me in the past to plant me around wonderful people with shared interests. My prayer is that He will continue to do this, and that I will look at this next big change as an opportunity to get to know more wonderful people, and to build relationships with them as we take this next step together.