Good friends...

This weekend was such a fun weekend! Justin and I had a great time with old friends, and met wonderful new ones!

On Sunday afternoon we went to a housewarming party at the new house of our friends Jason and Ginny. They were some of the first friends we met when we moved to Dallas almost 7 years ago. They have two beautiful boys, are such a gorgeous family! What fun getting to spend a little time with them--we just don't get together enough!

While we were there, we got to know Taryn, Ernest, and their precious little guy, Austin. Taryn and I have been blog friends (The Crouch House) for a long time, following each other's lives and lifting each other up in prayer. She has journeyed down a similar road to ours, and really understands what we are going through. She is such a sweet person, sending me a book to read, encouraging emails, and many wonderful comments on my blog. She lives in Frisco, a mere 20 minutes from where I live, but we had never connected. She spotted our names on the evite to the housewarming party, and we knew we had to meet in the "real" world! I'm so glad I got to meet you, Taryn, and I appreciate your friendship! You are an inspiration to me!

(Okay--seriously--these are amazing pictures of my friends!! I stole them off their blog and facebook, and they look like models!!)
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We also decided on Sunday to join a new lifegroup at our church. Lifegroups are the fellowship part of our church. Since we don't have traditional Sunday school at Hope, we "do life together" in lifegroups instead! We had been a part of a wonderful lifegroup for the last almost 4 years, that finished at the beginning of summer. We took the summer off, and were planning on joining one again in the fall. As we were in the process of doing the IVF, our old lifegroup leader (and wonderful friend) Michelle emailed and told us of the one that she had joined. One of the pastor's and his wife felt that the Lord was calling them to start one specifically geared toward young families--to mentor them since they are a few years farther on in being parents. When we found out were were pregnant, I was so excited, because our friends in that lifegroup also have children and we would be joining them as parents soon. But that wasn't to be, and I just didn't know if I could bring myself to join a group with a lot of babies right now.
But...God was working on my heart. We need to have friends, a support system right now as we take the next steps. I really feel like God was telling me that we should still join the lifegroup. Some of our closest friends are in it, and I really am excited. Even though we are not parents right now, I still know that we will be someday, so why not learn from all these wonderful people?! We are really excited, and can't wait for our times together to come!

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I thank God for all the amazing friends He has brought into our lives. I don't know what we would do without the love and support we get from each and every one!!!