July 13th

Thursday, July 13th, 2017

Each year seems to carry a theme for me. The gift and importance of friends that turn into family is 2017’s anthem.

Paul and I are both blessed to have such deep, authentic friendships. Together as a couple we’ve made great new friends, and we also both have friends that we grew up with that we’ve loved and cherished all our lives.

Britt is one of those friends who stormed into my life, upended it, and changed me for the better because of it.

The first time I met Britt, I was at a registration event for college. All of the freshmen getting together to register for classes and meet fellow students the spring before classes started in the fall. I was sitting at the table reserved for Honors Program students when Britt walked up. The first thing I noticed? Her big beautiful eyes and the fact that she loved to talk. Easily the most talkative at our table, she was also the most expressive. She stunned me a little, quite frankly. I was shy and quiet and this girl had the entire table captivated.

Later that afternoon, we learned we could log in and find out who our roommates were. Room 410: Britt Lazur. Holy cats. The girl that talks a lot.

And let me tell you, God knew what he was doing that day.

Our first year was rough I’d say. We are both stubborn and did our fair share of challenging each other. I learned a lot about who I was and did a lot of growing up. We had a lot of disagreements but many more deep talks and adventures. She fell into closets and we got lost trying to find Pizza Hut. We’d go walk around Target to blow off steam. We watched all of the classic Disney movies together and planned Halloween parties. I met her family, she met mine, we basically became sisters.

From the dorm to our first apartment, we ended up living together all four years of college. Car pooling, meals, shoveling snow, folding laundry, binge watching Bones, broken down cars, a Christmas tree and a rabbit.

Now we’re both married and she’s expecting twins anytime staring in August.

I missed her baby shower, so today I hopped on a plane to spend a few days of quality time with her before the babies come. After three hours of pure love sitting in the living room of her new house catching up on life, one part of our mini roomie-date was at her favorite coffee place: Beans.

As I was standing there deciding what coffee I wanted, I thanked God for this incredible friendship that he’s blessed me with, and wondered how on earth I deserve a friend like her. I then walked on to pick up my ordered coffee, and this sign stood there in the glass.

What a guy.