Friends are rare precious stones...

I realised today I have not made a 'new' friend in a while. At first I was concerned that I was not doing my best to socialise with new people but I reminded myself that I have been working on maintaining and strengthening my old relationships.

It is easy to socialise with people who have children the same age as the girls, it requires little preparation to meet at a play centre and enjoy a hot chocolate while Sophie and her little friends play. I am thankful I have such a sociable little girl who loves interacting. In the last year I have strengthened my friendship with mothers who I have admired from a distance. These mothers provide me with laughter and friendship and make my time at home as a stay at home mum even more enjoyable.

I have a network of online friends who have children the same age as Sophie or Natalie. There is always someone there for advice or to simply listen. We may have different parenting ideas and values but we are always supportive of one another. I think this kind of support is a rarity. I have witnessed the cyber bullies who do not understand or appreciate any style of parenting from their own. For instance, I was horrified to read that on someone's facebook status regarding controlled crying someone posted... a baby left to cry themselves to sleep could die and only remembering being alone and sad! What a horrible horrible thing to say. For whatever reason I am almost always able to pick up my girls when they are sad or simply fighting sleep HOWEVER I can understand that at times an older baby may protest going to sleep and whine, no parent is evil for letting them cry for a short time!! ...what was I talking about...oh yeah...

I love that Facebook has reconnected me with old friends from my childhood and teenage years. Amazingly I speak to some people online more than I ever did when I actually knew them!

Now to the most precious and treasured of them all....my best friends. I am blessed to have three.

My oldest friendship is with Cheryl. I have known her since I was a teeny-tiny 7 year old. We went to school together from years 2-5 and 7-12. I don't have a great memory of primary school so I am grateful to have Cheryl to remind me of the silly things we got up to. I do remember in the early high school years we went our separate ways but like all good friendships we got back on track. The highlight of this friendship so far was witnessing her precious baby Caleb come into the world. To this day I feel blessed that I was asked to support her through this amazing and life changing event. We have so many memories that we like to giggle over. Our lives have gone in different directions but we always manage to meet at a crossroad to stop, revive and survive.

My latest bestfriend is Michelle. I have known her for the last four years. She started her teaching career a year into mine. Over time I have proudly witnessed her commit to a long-distance relationship, establish her professional teaching and leadership career, assist her partner in moving states, become engaged and recently, getting married. I have been able to witness all these wonderful things in such a short time. I know that our friendship is strong and that we have so many more special moments to share with one another. Again, I am blessed to have someone so special in my life.

And then there is Kelly. She is the sister I never had. Out of all my friends one may say she was the one that I was least likely to become good friends with. I meet her when I was 18 years old working in a retail store, she offered me a position in her store which I had until I finished university 5 years later. Our relationship was professional with the usual work/social outings. Over time we realised we had some things in common, we meet our partners within months of each other and we became engaged around the same time too (and eventually were married 3 weeks apart!). Steve and I often socialised with Kelly and Dennis on weekends and over time this developed into overnight camping trips and holidays together. Two weeks before our wedding I had problems with a bridesmaid and Kelly was there to help me deal with it and over time has taught me why that friendship was unhealthy with that person. She stepped in as a bridesmaid and since then we have been there for each other. She is such a beautiful and generous person. She drops everything and anything to help my family and I. We love her like family and we can never thank her enough for being there for us! We love her daughter and son like they were our own children and I can't wait to see what life has in store for our children.