SPECIAL BLESSINGS

I found myself today thinking of love and how blessed I am with family and friends who I know love me. And how much I love them. But today I was especially thinking of two friends and how much they mean to me and how much I love them.

I took Thea this afternoon to visit our friend Jo who is in a nursing home. I met Jo about 6 years ago when Thea and I started our Therapy Dog visits. She immediately took to Thea and our relationship grew from there. She is such a special lady and I always come away from visiting her knowing I have been blessed. Sometimes we talk a lot during our visits and sometimes, like today, we talk just a little and Jo spends most of the visit petting Thea (who is totally content to lay in her lap and relax). I don't visit her as often as I would like due to work and other commitments. But I realized today how much I love her and how she has blessed my life. And God has put us together and has blessed our friendship. She is a "Very Special Blessing" to me.

After my visit with Jo I arrived home and was reading my friend Susan's blog and I felt God reminding me of the VERY SPECIAL friendship Susan and I have. She is my sounding board, my "sister", and my best friend. I have seen her go through some very tough times in her life. She had three foster children taken from her when her husband (who was in the Service) was transferred to Connecticut. DSS would not let them take the children out of state and they were placed with another family. Susan was devastated. It was a very difficult time for her and also for me. I had come to love Elijah, Brianna and Zane. But I was also devastated because my friend was moving away and so very far away. I could no longer call her up and meet in 20 minutes for dinner. But the move did not weaken our friendship - but strengthened it. We were "sisters in Christ" and the Lord has greatly blessed our friendship. And now Susan and her husband have moved to North Carolina and she is only 1 hour away and we see each other frequently. We have been there for each other through many things - both good and sad. She is going through one of the tough times now. They are foster parents to two adorable little girls and are waiting to see if they will be able to adopt them. The court date is in March and we are all praying they will be able to adopt Hazel and Emily. Lord I pray you will bless Susan and Thom with the permanent addition of Hazel and Emily to their family.

So as I sit here tonight reflecting on these two friends - I realize that they are both "Special Little Blessings", except I feel they are BIG BLESSINGS to me. "Thank you Lord for Susan and Jo. Thank you for putting them in my life and I pray I will be as good a friend to them as they are to me."