Who are you?

"You are defined by your family and the friends that you keep."

This weekend we had a lot of partying going on. On Friday night, we got to hang out with our good friends Donna and Brandon while at a party for our friends Kristin and Brandon who were in town from Savannah. On Saturday night, we went to a party for my Uncle Mike and Aunt Sue who are twins. It was a surprise party celebrating their 50th birthday(s). On Sunday we went to a first birthday party for my cousin's son Jeffrey.

The party on Saturday night was a big surprise for my uncle Mike. Little did he know that his twin sister would be in town to spend the evening with him, and that 50+ other people would be waiting to surprise him when he went into a dinner where he epxected to see just a few other people. It was nice to have everyone together. My cousins gave heartwarming and humurous speeches while talking about their dad and many others shared memories of the twins growing up. At one point my uncle stood up to thank everyone and talk about how grateful he was to have such wonderful family and friends. One of the things he said was this. "I have always said that you are really defined by your family and the friends that you keep."

I got to thinking about that and realized how much it applied to me. I feel so fortunate to have such a great family of people who truly care for and love each other. I am not just close with my parents and sister, but with my aunts, uncles, cousins, and in-laws. Over the years I have met wonderful friends who I have grown extremely close to. In the past several years, my husband and I have learned more about what a true friend is than we had expected to. We are extremely grateful for the people in our lives who we consider to be our friends. And we have finaly come to the realization that we are also grateful that some "so-called-friends" who proved to not really be friends at all - are no longer in our lives. Afterall, if it is your family and friends that you keep that do define you, it is nice to know that the good ones are the ones you continually surround yourself with.

In the past several weeks we have been to many parties, out to dinner with friends, to a baptism, several birthday celebrations, and had a party and a few get-togethers at our own home. In the next several weeks we have other dinners, parties, concerts, and weekends planned with friends and this fall we will see some of our friends in FL for another baptism. We are very grateful for the company we keep in our families and friendships. We have been blessed to have some truly wonderful people in our lives.

No matter who you are, your life will always be enriched when you share a strong bond of true friendship with someone else. How exciting would life really be without friends? So to all of our friends out there who might be reading this, thank you for your friendship. You have helped to make us who we are. And to our families, thank you for the unconditional love, support, and comradery. You guys are awesome!