Treasures

When it comes to friends, I feel very fortunate. My life has been blessed with very wonderful people. I'll use "Favorite things Friday" to write about some of them. One of my favorite people in the world is my friend Amanda. I'm going to write about her first because I have been thinking about her a lot lately. I stole this picture of her and her family from her blog. Aren't they cute? And isn't she exceptionally beautiful?I met Amanda about four years ago. She started working in the same department as me at my previous employer. She worked under a different supervisor than me, so at first I never really talked to her. My first impression of Amanda was that she was way too pretty to be friends with me. I had heard she had been a cheerleader and she worked part time as a cheerleading coach. (Not that there is anything wrong with cheerleaders, I’ve just incorrectly judged them in my life because I never really got to know anybody who was a cheerleader.) I never imagined that I would be friends with Amanda because she just seemed so different than me. I need to learn to stop making assumptions about people, because almost every time I do, I'm wrong.

Anyway, Amanda's supervisor quit and they dissolved Amanda's team. Amanda not only ended up on my team, but she ended up sitting right next to me. We quickly became friends. I learned that Amanda really wanted to be a mother, but unfortunately she and her husband were struggling with infertility. I was sad for her. Not too long after we became friends I found out I was pregnant. I felt really bad telling Amanda that I was pregnant and I was worried how she would feel. I was worried that we might not continue our friendship, not because she was mad, but because it's hard to be around somebody who is pregnant when you can't get pregnant.

Amanda was nothing but happy for me and she was so sweet to me. Everyday she would ask me how I was feeling. She was excited for me; even though she was sad she couldn't get pregnant. She was always telling me how cute I was, which helped a lot when I was pregnant.

Amanda and her husband eventually decided to try adoption and a little over a year ago they had a sweet baby boy join their family. The process was everything but easy, but Amanda was determined. Although it was hard, she never gave up. I am so grateful for the birth mother of her little boy. I am among the many people who would love to shower her with gifts for making such a huge sacrifice.

Not too long ago, Amanda found out that, amazingly, she was pregnant. I was sooooooo excited for her. Unfortunately she had a miscarriage. Life is really unfair sometimes!

She and her husband are again looking to adopt. They will soon be ‘putting in their papers’ to get the process going. When they do, I’ll put a link to their adoption page on my blog. Sometimes it just takes one person who knows somebody, who knows somebody, etc…

Last time I visited Amanda,the house across the street from her house was for sale; I really wish I could afford it. When I move away from living across the street from my sister, it would be fun to be able to live across the street from Amanda. Although I won’t be able to live by her, I hope that our friendship will continue. Amanda is an amazing person. One of the biggest things I've learned from her is to be grateful for the opportunities I've had to be pregnant. Amanda is also just a lot of fun to be around. When I was working, she made it easier to be at work. There are so many things I love about her and just knowing her has made my life better. She is an awesome person and I love her.