A gift

Look at what I got in the mail yesterday.


It is from my good friend, Jill, who I refer to as "one of my military wife girlfriends".
She is one of about 15 women who I "met" online 8 years ago (this month, to be exact) while Jason was overseas. I happened to find a forum for military wives and fell in love with it. It was a great source of strength during that terribly hard time. After a few years, it was obvious that there was a smaller group inside that mass of thousands who were more connected than the others. One of those girls created a forum just for us. We used that for the next few years until facebook came along, and now that is the way we keep in touch with each other and our lives.
I've personally met about 5 of the girls, and a lot of them have met each other too....but for the most part, we just are close because of the circumstances that first brought us together and that initial common thread that set us apart from most.
In the past 8 years, we've seen each other get married, get divorced, have countless babies and say goodbye to our husbands as they deploy again, we've lost weight together and gained weight together, we've exchanged secret Santa gifts, had some fights and made up, a few of us even have matching tattoos...now how's that for commitment. We've cried as our resident 'mom' went through the heartache of having a house fire and we've consoled each other when a loved one has been lost, while thankfully not one of us ever had to bear the terrible news of losing a spouse in the war, we have laughed with each other (remember walking like an Egyptian) and we have prayed a million prayers for one another. I honestly feel like I know them all so well and we've never even met....most of us.
I have this dream someday of having a get together with all of us there so we can finally give some overdue hugs. God bless you guys....and thank you.