Flashback Friday--One Day Late

This week in celebration of her birthday and in a blatant attempt to guilt her into either (a) commenting on my blog and/or (b) posting on her own blog, I am honoring my dear friend Wendy with my flashback.

Wendy and I met on our missions. I'd like to say that I appreciated her immensely from the moment we said, "Buna ziua," but that's simply not true. I liked her fine and I'm sure she liked me, but it wasn't for almost a year that I really came to love my friend Wendy so very much.

There was a rather dark time in my mission/life where I felt like a fish on land. I was miserable and felt like I was slowly suffocating. Whenever I had a couple of hours with Wendy during that time, it was like she scooped me up off the sidewalk, placed me in my native water and swam around with me until I was strong enough to go on. It might sound dramatic to you, dear friend and devoted reader, but you don't know how hard that time was for me; I hope you never will. Wendy was a great listener and she really saved me. Sadly, I had the chance to be the same support for her when my situation improved and hers took a turn for the worse. Because of our like experiences and the way we helped each other through them, we really bonded.

After our missions and graduating from college, we went to Europe. (The above photo is us in London, as you might have guessed by Big Ben's presence above our heads.) We did a whirlwind trip from England to France to Italy to the Czech Republic to Hungary to Romania to Germany and back again (give or take a country or two). We had a great time eating our weight in Hot Tamales on trains across Europe and seeing all the major sights we could get in. It was such a fun time and I'm so glad I got to do it with her.

Wendy exceeded the expectations of even a great friend when she came out to help me after Mason was born. I loved having her! She was a real trooper to stay on the couch in our little apartment and melt in the ninety degree weather with ninety percent humidity and no air conditioning!

I haven't seen Wend since then. Eight years! During that time, we've lost touch and then reconnected. I hope to see her again in the near future. She's a fabulous story teller and I'd love to stay up until the wee hours of the morning talking to her again...