In my last semester of high school (in 2012), I met this girl named Bri in one of my classes. We instantly connected and became best friends very quickly. She was my person (any Grey’s Anatomy fans out there!? 😛 ). I even met Aaron through her, and I thought it was fitting that she was my maid of honor at our wedding. But shortly after Aaron & I got married (in 2014), we had a huge fallout and stopped talking.
Devastated, I tried my best to move on. It was hard, and it felt like there was a hole in my heart that no matter who I met, no one else could fill it. I believe that when some friendships are over, it hurts just as bad if not worse then a girlfriend/boyfriend breakup. I missed her! But the way we “ended” left a 0.001% chance of ever talking to each other again. We were done.
2 1/2 years went by, and the pastor at our church spoke on the topic of Forgiveness. It sparked my heart and I felt in my spirit that I should reach out to Bri.
A couple days later, I sent a text that the Holy Spirit had to type for me. I was clueless what to even say, but He gave me words and I faithfully (although confused) hit “send”. Much to my surprise, Bri answered. I feel like we were both awkward, but the effort was there and I appreciated that. We didn’t really talk about what happened, but we got to “speaking terms,” and that was enough for me.
A couple days before we flew out to Seattle, I texted her and told her I was coming up and would love to meet if she was up for it (but I totally understood if she said “no”). She replied saying, “I’d love that!” so we set up a date and time.
On WEDNESDAY (6.7.17), we met at a frozen yogurt place. While I was driving there, I suddenly became nervous. What would we talk about? Would it be awkward? It’d been almost 3 years…
Thankfully, we had some topics that we covered while we ate – Aaron & I moving to Alabama, having Rylie, her wedding and new job + married life – so it wasn’t awkward at all.
As our conversation of those topics wrapped up, I felt the Holy Spirit nudge me to bring it up. “So… not to dig up old dirt… but I think we should talk about it…”
The next 30/45 minutes consisted of Bri & I having a heart to heart about what happened almost 3 years ago and how it had effected each of us. Much to my surprise, she had missed me too.
I told her if she wanted, this “meeting” could be closure OR we could start on the road of becoming friends again. I had hardly finished before she started shaking her head with a smile and saying, “nope! I don’t want this to just be for closure!” We both said we wanted to be friends again – so we kicked it off by taking a photo together 🙂
Sarah – I never would have imagined we’d take another photo together, but I’m really thankful, excited & happy we did! ❤️ Here comes round 2 😜
Bri – Grateful for second chances and new beginnings 🙂
We met up again a couple days later and enjoyed the sights and food of Pike Place Market. We enjoyed catching up some more and hearing about what had been going on in each other’s lives throughout the last few years.
Before Aaron & I flew out, I wanted to see Bri one last time, so we connected again to just hang out and chat some more. Before we said “bye,” we briefly talked about how we’d continue growing our relationship 3,000 miles away. It was a good conversation, and we both left encouraged!
We hugged roughly 5 times before we actually walked away to our cars. Hahaha!
I could not have been more surprised at how God moved during those 2 weeks I was in Seattle. We shared our hearts, forgave each other, and connected in a new way. I’m so thankful that our friendship is now in a healthy place! Since I’ve been back in Alabama, we’ve texted and even FaceTimed (for almost 3 hours I might add 😛 ). I’m so excited to see where God takes this friendship as He continues to restore and reconnect us. <3