Love Thursday

Jessica Kyle Owen, February 18, 2005

Braydon and I have a lot of friends. Old friends, new friends, friends we see often, friends we rarely ever see, friends from past stages of life, friends from the here-and-now, friends from online who we've never even met in person. Even though I often feel like I'm not a good enough friend (I'm not in touch enough, I forget birthdays, I am horrible about sending 'thank you notes,' I hate talking on the phone, etc., etc., etc.), I feel so grateful to have such a wide network of friends in my life who in their own ways each are sticking it out with crazy-ole-me. And one special thing about life "Post K & O" (as we fondly refer to it), is that I have been able to watch as this wide net of friends embrace my boys -- each embracing K & O in their own way. Some of my friends know my boys well, some have yet to meet them, some read this blog daily and still want more details about my boys' life, others have never logged onto this blog and know virtually nothing about K & O... yet each of my friends have, in some way, shown love for Kyle and Owen. Sometimes the showing of love is subtle, sometimes overt, sometimes spiritual, sometimes material. But I can't think of one person who I love that hasn't shown love for my children. How amazing is that? Even before the boys arrived the love was showering down; we had four baby showers thrown for us, we received literally hundreds of "Happy Adoption" cards, and people all over the place were praying for my boys. I feel so truly blessed. So blessed. And I feel so glad for Kyle and Owen that they have that in place in their life. Nobody could ask for more. At the same time, as I mentioned above, I'm often self-conscious that I'm not a good enough friend to my friends. I worry that I let too much slip too often. I worry that I don't do enough, that I don't show my love enough, that I'm too selfish and wrapped up in my own little life. So today I wanted my "Love Thursday" post to be about the love I feel for my friends -- and the appreciation I feel toward my friends for loving my boys so unquestioningly. Tomorrow some very dear friends arrive for the weekend. We don't see them often enough. We don't do enough for them. But there is no doubt in my mind that they love my boys with a passion. And that just makes me love them even more than I did "Pre K & O" (which I didn't think was possible). The photo above is of the first time our friend Jessica met my boys. Jess is one of the very best friends I have in the whole wide world. She drove for hours to come meet the boys just a couple of weeks after they had arrived home. I was in a hazy-blurry-New-Mom-of-Adopted-Twin-Babies-fog, but somehow I had the wherewithal to pull out the camera and click this one shot. I love this photo because I feel like you can see on her face the love that Jessica felt for my boys (and she had just met them), AND you can see in the boys' postures the comfort they felt with Jessica right away. It is all so beautiful. Happy Love Thursday Everyone!