How He Loves: Hey, Soul Sister

Today is a special day.

On this day, 20 years ago, a miracle happened.

A little, bitty baby entered the world - and I'm convinced that from the moment that baby girl got here, her eyes were full of light and her heart was full of dreams.

And now, 20 years later, that not so wittle baby is my bestie.

Happy Birthday, babylove.

When I saw Hannah for the first time, I was 8. We were both in Awanas at church and all I knew about her was that she was homeschooled at the time. I never talked to her, never approached her, never knew that one day I would spend hours a day on the phone with her, that I would share my deepest hurts and greatest joys with her, that I would laugh and stay up all night singing about eggrolls with her, that I would learn how to bake with her, that I would learn how to lead and follow my dreams with her, that I would be encouraged by her and strengthened by her friendship.

I just looked at her and saw a girl. I had no idea.

I didn't look at her and see the girl that would help me survive the horrors of high school and college. I didn't look at her eyes and see the eyes that would squint and tear up as we laughed maniacally together for hours. I didn't look at her hands and see the hands that would spend days and nights emailing, texting, facebook messaging, calling, and writing letters to me as we would fight to grow our friendship despite the miles that would separate us. I didn't look at her feet and see the feet that would walk miles and miles alongside me - feet that would travel with me to share our faith, that would go with me to build houses, that would stroll with me while pondering the mercies of a faithful God. I didn't look at her arms and see the arms that would wrap around me and comfort me as I dealt with loss, failure, and fear. I didn't look at her face and see the face that would overwhelm my heart with joy every time I saw it.

I looked at her and saw just another pair of eyes, just another couple of hands, just another normal smile and maybe some abnormally large feet for an 8 year old.

I just looked at her and saw a girl. Man, I had no idea.

In 8th grade I re-met Hannah. Six years after the first time I saw her, I was invited to her house by a mutual friend of ours, Bekah. Her parents didn't have any notice that I was coming and were quite surprised, which resulted in Hannah getting grounded and me feeling really awkward.

I didn't watch her yell into the phone and realize that I would witness dozens more of these typical parent/teenager fights between her and her parents and even get pulled into a couple of them. ;) I didn't realize that I would call her thousands of times and rant about my own fights with my family.

I didn't walk into her room and realize that this was the place I would return to hundreds of times more for countless all-nighters and shenanigans. I didn't sit on her bed and realize that this would be the bed that I would sit on while skyping friends and taking selfies. That this was the bed that I would be laying in as Hannah recorded me sleeptalking. That this bed would be the one that I hid under the covers in when creepy things happened and we were scared of being alone. That this was the very bed that would give me rest after hours of JustDance, sweaty knees, and scone-baking.

I didn't look at the blue walls and realize that soon those walls would become home to me. I didn't look at the desk and see the place where we would make plans to start movements and organizations together. I didn't see the bathroom and see the place where I would get ready for Homecoming. I didn't see the closet and see the clothes that I would borrow and steal and shrink on accident. I didn't see the Eiffel Tower statue and see the weapon that Hannah would use to protect us every time we thought someone had broken into her house.

I didn't see the Bible on her nightstand and see the book that we would read daily together, study together, and pray over together - the book that would seal our friendship, bind our hearts, and grow our love for God and others. The book that she would bring to 6am Bible Study at Kennedy Coffee with Ruthanne. The book that she would have in her hand as we met for morning challenges freshman year of high school. The book that we would search through together to find hard answers to questions that changed our lives. The book that she would bring with her to DNOW when we decided to become accountability partners and best friends.

I just didn't know. I had no idea.

The summer before 9th grade year I went to the lake with one of my best friends, Bekah. She invited a couple of other girls, including Hannah. I was excited because I wanted my hair to be blonder and my skin to be tanner before my freshman year of high school started, and what better way to achieve that than to spend a hot, sunny day on the lake? What I didn't realize was that I would get a phone number that would become very important to me, one that I would never forget. (I'm not going to post it to prove that I remember it.)

After laughing way too hard at jokes that weren't funny to anyone else and tricking our mutual friend, Varun into thinking my leg got bit off by an alligator fish, Hannah and I exchanged phone numbers. Then we went tubing. I think Hannah wiped out. Okay, maybe we both did.

The next day we talked on the phone for an hour. We talked about boys and school and going to the mall. I couldn't believe that Hannah got me, the girl who HATES talking on the phone, to stay on there for SIXTY MINUTES. Little did I know that someday it would be completely normal for me to spend upwards of 4 hours on the phone with this same friend. It would also someday become completely normal to make 5 or 6 phone calls DAILY to this friend. I had no idea that we would never grow tired of talking about boys and school and going to the mall. Or that we would come up with a lot deeper issues to talk about than boys and school and going to the mall.

I really did not know. I had absolutely no idea.

We stayed in touch and ended up in the same DNOW group at the beginning of freshman year. We discovered a mutual passion for our faith and shared our hearts and became accountability partners.

And this is where it officially began.

After this day followed dance parties and opera singing and sonic drink combo experimenting and laughing and fighting and yelling and apologizing and learning and Bible studies and weird voice making.

After this day our days were filled with geocaching and hiking and tea-drinking and chicken-salad eating and roadtripping and roller-coaster-ing and epic video making and standing up for each other and standing up for the voiceless and discovering our callings and chasing our dreams and failing and standing back up and laughing some more and fighting some more and apologizing some more.

After this day we spent our time talking on the phone and making weird Facebook posts and taking disturbingly ugly pictures and chinning and crushing and gushing and making ginger-bread princess fortresses and secret-telling and wiping out and making fun and being awkward and sharing awkward stories and meddling and failed double-dating and rolling in the snow.

After this day memories were made of eating malt-o-meal and studying and praying and throwing softballs with Hannah's papa and having conversations with Grandma Jo and consoling and comforting and threatening ex's and apologizing to ex's we threatened and laughing still and crying a lot and writing and building houses and learning to use power tools and traveling and taking pictures on chairs all over town and running and riding bikes in circles and ranting and laughing laughing laughing....

and building a friendship that has changed us from girls who have stupid conversations on gmail chat to girls who have stupid conversations on iMessage. A friendship that has stood the test of time, distance, and high school boyfriends. A friendship that has taught me that I'm never alone and that even when absolutely no one understands me, my best friend does and can tell me what I'm thinking before I even say it.

A friendship that has shown me that God is good and lets all people experience good gifts and deep, rich joys.

Today I thank God for this miracle of friendship and for the miracle of one girl who has changed my life forever. Who has made it just a little bit brighter and more light hearted. I stand amazed that God would bless me, of all people, as the best friend of Hannah Tomlin. I also stand amazed that anyone in the world could be as weird and quirky as me and share the exact same stupid sense of humor that literally NO ONE else understands.

So Happy 20th birthday to the girl who I looked at when I was 8 and I thought was weird for being homeschooled. Happy 20th birthday to the girl who let me stay at her house even though her parents got really upset and grounded her and probably moved her computer bedtime back to 7pm as a punishment. Happy 20th birthday to the girl who told Varun that my leg was eaten by an alligator fish and forced me to like talking on the phone.