BLOG FRIENDS CAN BE REAL FRIENDS:)

I just got off the phone from a 3 hour conversation with my sweet friend Tonya. It was the first time I had talked to her... she is my blog friend, I feel kind of funny saying it... but it is true and really I love it:).

I have to laugh because a year ago I never would have guessed I would be so excited to talk with someone I met through my blog...

I remember a few months after my loss, telling someone that I knew what I was feeling was normal because I had read many of the same things I was feeling and thinking on other women's blogs who had also had losses. This person proceeded to tell me, " What makes you think it is normal to feel that way.... come on, blogging is a little odd, don't you thin, blogging isn't really normal. So maybe these people aren't really normal, because do normal people blog?"

I can never respond quick enough... but now I could and would respond that yes, us bloggers are normal. It is just like journaling, just online. I love to write, yet never got up the gumption to journal. For some reason, blogging works for me to get my thoughts out.

I can honestly say that I am not quite sure how I would have survived the first 6 months after losing Samuel had it not been for my MEND group and for the friendships I have formed and the support of other blog moms who have lost babies.

Really, I am not sure I remember how I even stumbled across Tonya's blog at http://www.tonyatalk.blogspot.com/ But what I do know is that I have found a precious friend in Tonya. There are quite a few moms I have really connected with through their blogs and I can tell you I am so encouraged by them, strengthened by their prayers and comforted by knowing that we don't travel this journey alone.

But with Tonya, it is almost uncanny the amount of things we have in common. We both have taught childbirth classes, are baby loving fools, we both planned on making the same birthday cake for our babies heavenly birthdays, and we even have the same name picked out if either of us are blessed to ever have another daughter. We think a lot alike and I am always saying, "Yes, Yes, I think or feel that same way." while I read her blog. Her precious baby boy Grady went home to His savior last November, just 13 days after Samuel. I like to think of Samuel welcoming Grady home when he arrived. I just wish I would've known Tonya last November to walk this road together from the very beginning. Because our boys birthdays are so close together we are experiencing a lot of the same emotions right now. It was so nice to talk that all over with her. She is an incredible woman of God and the more I learn about her, the more I get to know about her, the more I respect her and am encouraged by how she has persevered under great trials in life. I am so blessed to call her my friend.

One thing that was different about us is our voices... she just had the most precious southern accent... I am not sure the midwestern accent I carry would be considered precious:)

So as I sit here tonight... up too late again:) I am thanking God for the precious friends that He has brought to me from some of the most unlikely places. This week I have seen God in some of the small things in life and that feels really good. I have also seen God working to bring friends my way, and that is a special gift.

Praising God even when it hurts.... Sara