linz & gord

As a kid moving is a near-death experience. "How on earth am I ever going to make any friends?" "I will die without the friends I have now!" "What do you mean the new town doesn't have a mall!? I can't live without a mall!" As trying as it is to move as a kid, it's even harder to move as a teenager. More specifically as an over-dramatic, half-way-through-her-junior-year-at-the-high-school-she-thought-she-was-going-to-graduate-from-teenager.

It makes it even harder when the only reason you've ever even heard the name of the town to which you're moving is because it made national news because someone shot the sheriff. You cannot make this stuff up.

So, at nearly seventeen my parents dumped me in Somerset. I was fairly certain I was going to be the best dressed girl in school, because hello, people in Kentucky don't even wear shoes. Except that they did at my school. And there were a lot of cool kids, one of which I was not. And then we visited church for the first time... and I was the oldest one in the youth group. Great. This was shaping up to be the best move ever. 

And that's when the Lord, in His infinite wisdom, brought Gordy and Lindsay Prather to Somerset. Really, I should thank God that He worked on Lindsay's heart and got her to move to Somerset. :) This beautiful newlywed couple served as the youth ministers to our rag-tag youth group. It was the best of times... and it was the worst of times. I mean, I did tell you I was filled with a lot of angst, didn't I?

Thankfully, Linz & Gord saw through my snotty, too-competitive, too-self-conscious, mess of a teenage girl exterior and loved me anyway. They helped me to understand the Bible for what it really said, not what I'd been told. Linz held me while I cried over boys. Gord encouraged me to believe in myself. And they never complained when I honed in on their precious newlywed time because it was so much more fun watching TV on their couch than mine at home. :) They even let me keep their precious daughter when Linz went back to work. 

I owe them for a lot, definitely. Most notably, I owe them for introducing me to the man of my dreams. For orchestrating the best match-making in modern history and then counseling us through tough times and being apart of our engagement, wedding and now the life of our sweet boy. 

Seven years ago Linz & Gord moved to Florida. This time I wasn't the one moving but I cried harder than ever before. I needed them. We needed them. And like only a friendship centered on Christ can, we've maintained the most amazing friendship through seven years and too many miles.  

They say good things come to those who wait. So, it took seven years but... OUR BEST FRIENDS ARE NOW KENTUCKY RESIDENTS AGAIN! For no other couple in the world would I be willing to leave my sweet boy for two entire days, drive non-stop for 16 hours and even go without showering (Ha! It was a whirlwind trip!). Our 48-hour adventure to Florida and back was my first time away from Dane. He got to spend some quality time with his Papa J and Granna-- who were kind enough to send thousands a few photos to tide this mamma over.

They've been back a month now and I still don't think it's really settled into my brain that they are only 45 minutes away. They left a family of three and came back a family of four with Sweet Baby Noah (which I am not allowed to call him anymore because "I'm not a baby, I'm a big boy!"). 

We're looking forward to sharing a pew with them on Sundays, taking advantage of free babysitting, and playing countless late-night games of Spades. 

"Every time I think of you, I give thanks to my God." Philippians 1:3