Day 24 – A picture of someone you miss

Some people come in our lives and go right back out, while other people never leave.

Over the last year I've learned who all will be there for me and never leave, who is willing to walk away, and who I can't get rid of if I tried.

Now I have many people that I miss from Germany. The time difference sucks because I can't always communicate with them the way I'd like to. But I think about them, daily. Wonder what they are doing and how many crazy adventures we'd be having right now if I stayed.

I'm going to take you back a few years, to January of 2009. Dennis and I had just gotten married, and he swore he was going to write me while he was in his last 3 weeks of basic training. After almost 2 full weeks of hearing nothing, I grew concerned and started googling information on basic training and stuff. I came across the mother load of help. Solo-Ops is a support forum for military wives and girlfriends, of all branches. There are wives who's husbands are no longer in the service, wives who are no longer with the men in the service, and there are girlfriends who are brand new to all of it and are scared out of their minds.

I fell into the third category, accept I wasn't a girlfriend, I am a wife. I remember posting about how long letters take to come out of basic, and running home every night to check the mail for letters. I was accepted into this new community and quickly became friends with the women on the board. They knew what I was going through, I didn't feel dumb asking them questions about AIT, moving, and even when things were difficult for me. These ladies became my second family.

Then in May of 2009 Dennis and I were getting ready to move across the Atlantic Ocean. I was going to be away from the people who I knew had my back no matter what I was doing. I had no friends in this soon to be "home" and I reached out to one girl on the site who was heading to Germany around the same time I was. Jennifer was heading across the ocean with her little girl, Cassidy. Her hubby was already there waiting for her, and we started talking constantly.

What started on an internet site soon became much, much more. We went from being friends to sisters. Sisters that had never met, but rarely went a day without talking to each other.

I was there for her when she was pregnant, and barely able to move and her hubby was deployed.

One time in February 2010, Cassidy lost her car keys. She couldn't even go to the commissary because she had no spare set, it was freezing outside, and her doctor told her she couldn't walk far or she'd risk having Cadence early.

She wrote me crying on Valentines Day saying she was out of milk and that she didn't know what else to do. I looked at Dennis, who was busy playing video games, and asked him what we were going to do. Since both of us are a little opposed to Valentines Day, (I don't want roses because its V-Day, get me them because you want to, any day) he said probably nothing. Maybe a night in, cooking my favorite dinner, lemon peppered chicken.

Can we go to Wiesbaden?

What's in Wiesbaden?

Jennifer. She's out of milk and Cassidy lost her car keys. So she can't drive. 

Uh, sure.

So we got into the car and drove the almost 2 hours to Wiesbaden with our trusty GPS guiding us the entire way. We took her to the commissary, got the milk and she cooked us a wonderful Mexican dinner.

From that moment on we were best friends. She was there for me when Dennis deployed, offering her home to the Little and I so I could get out of my deployment funk. We wandered around Wiesbaden in the chilly February weather, ate Chinese food with cheap wine, and danced our hearts out until we couldn't see straight.

She's been there for me when I thought my world was crashing down on me. She's visited just when I needed her, and just because I was down. Her family became my family. I love them all, just like I love my Little.

I didn't want them to go when they came up for the Little's birthday party. Watching them pull away sucked more than anything. It hurt when I knew that it would be months before I could see them again. To cook a whole chicken and fail at it with her. The Little's birthday was beyond bittersweet.

I can't wait until they are stateside, with iPhone's so we can facetime...constantly. 

Best Friends Forever