So - I've been super blessed to reconnect with multiple high school friends over the course of the last several weeks.....can I just say what an amazing group of women my girl friends are!! I couldn't ask for more. In early May I got a phone call from one of my best elementary school friend - Melody. I hadn't talked to her in 19 years+ because she moved away from Halstead after our freshman year. I couldn't believe the call and was so excited to hear about her life and family! She and another friend were trying to reconnect with the "girls" of HHS Class of 1993 to meet and have a reunion on May 30. I will admit ~ I was a little timid about getting together, for the most part I hadn't talked with many of these women for many, many years. We have NEVER had a reunion of any kind. Regardless, I went - and had an absolutely AMAZING TIME! The entire function was planned via "facebook" and in the end eight woman showed up to reconnect. It was a diverse group of women - but I have to say - an incredible group....here's our "reunion" photo!
Back Row: LeaAnn Gabbert (Wendling); Tonya Ramsey (LeBrun)
Middle Row: Pam Weber, Amy Ediger (Ross) and her baby Addison
Front: Cris Anderson (Thompson), Melody Sigel (Steele), Brandi Brinkley (Cardwell) and me!
The evening started with the usual "remember when's" lots of laughter, confessions, embarassment, harassment, etc.! All the usual "reunion" stuff. Everyone was supposed to bring H.S. Memorabilia....and through the Lords leading, and only Him - I ran across a "tub" labeled High School JUNK shortly before departure for the reunion. I thought.... nahhhhh..... really... hummmmm....OKAY!!! And man, did I start digging! Pulled out photo albums, year books, and my "Senior" Journal from our senior year......while I was digging I went MIA for about 30-45 minutes....and I was running severly behind on getting everything ready to go ....and Tracy came a looking for me. When he found me, there I stood, in our storage room, just amazed (and really embarassed) of my life 16+ years ago. But anywho - loaded up those goods and dragged them along....and ***HELLO*** was the only one to bring any items! Now what was really embarassing is I brought all that junk (with the Lords leading of course).....but no picutres of my KIDS! Everyone else brought photos of their kids, hubbys, etc. I missed the mark on that one. Regardless....those items - helped us reconnect. What a blast. Yet embarassing. I was mortified by some of the things I had written. Embarassed, even had to tear out one page as it was awful. But overall - it was well worth brining.
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What was so incredible about that evening was the connection. It started with the usual stuff -keep in mind - many of us hadn't seen each other in 10+ years, or even since graduation day! We shared, laughed, remembered, cried (because of laughter), etc....but by the middle/end of the evening - our conversation was about life. How scared we are as mothers, wives, daughters, friends....etc. How do we raise our kids in this insane world. How do our daughters and sons grow up and NOT do the things we did (heaven forbid). Yet, with society today, the pressures are way more than we ever had to endure. We talked about how kids don't hang out at places like "Reds" like we did in our day (the local gas station).....in fact, there are no kids on main street in general. Where are the kids? We discussed some horrifying situations we hear kids are partaking in these days. We shared our concerns, our fears, the things that keep us up at night. It was somber at that point and a little depressing. We recognized how many of the women there that night grow up with multiple (more than 2) sibblings - big families. And how many of us had basically the standard "2" or less for the kid factor. The thought of more children, more worries, more concerns, more to protect them from, is frightening - to all of us..... what do we do? I don't have the answers. But then the "wise" one in the group (always has been), spoke up and said - ....basically - listen, if each of you instill the core values that you have in your children, no need to panic, don't worry, they will be okay! Thank you Tonya for being wise and snapping us all out of our panic, momentarily. I agree with Tonya and over and over I have to be brought back to God. With Him and lots and lots of prayer over our children, they will be okay. I'm sure each of us won't live out the most perfect plan as we can imagine in our own eyes and dreams, but we have to remember each plan is determined by the Lord and is perfect and has a purpose. Stay close to Him and regardless of the situation - each of us will be okay..... It was an amazing evening. One of the ladies said - hey, let's do this again - maybe monthly!! I said it took us 16 years to get to this point, monthly may be a stretch!! But I'm ready to meet again! It was awesome! Thank you Jesus for reconnecting this group of ladies. Thanks again ladies for attending, sharing, laughing, and being the amazing women, mothers, daughters, and wives each of you are! May the Lord bless and keep you!
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