FRIENDS

This past week, I have been reminded several times of how blessed we have become in the last few years! Let me explain...for the Hopkins girls, six years ago our life consisted of being together, playing sports, etc. - but no where in that picture were any friends. Our cousins in OH were about as close as we got. There were people we played soccer and basketball with - what I called friends then, but who I now refer to as "acquaintances". Then we started speech and debate - and everything changed. At the beginning, I was a little timer, who knew everyone by name (because I had watched them compete), but didn't personally know any of them. And then people (competitors!) started taking time to talk with ME! It meant quite a lot, and I still am very grateful to those people for the friendship they showed me. The next year I started competing, and it has only gotten better since then ~ my group of friends has grown to include a lot of really wonderful people, for whom I am so very grateful. There's one problem though....my closest friends live far, far away - Deleware, PA, some in MA and NY - so really the only time I'm with them is during tournament season, and then all summer we're alone again. :P Well this summer was different. I've been missing my speech and debate people very much, but now we have friends here too!! Over the last few months we've been hanging out with a family from church, and especially in the last month or so, we have had so much fun with them. Then it dawned on me the other day - "whoa, not only do we have amazing friends now, but now we have some that live in CT. How cool is that?" So I would just like to thank you all for being such amazing friends and being so encouraging! And also, a special thank you to God, for enriching our lives in such big ways over the last six years.