Thirty-Four.

I was kidnapped this week.
It's true.

Two of my gerls (not the chicken ones) told me that they wanted to take me out for a coffee for my birthday, so I got Grammy to watch the wee hoolies, I brushed my teeth and added some eye shadow, and away I went for a few hours with just us chicks.

Or, so I thought.
Low and behold - grand schemes were in the works!

We met out town, and the girls promptly drove me right back to my house...to pack an overnight bag! Holy Hannah, I was completely blown away. I'm not usually a big fan of surprises - I like to be able to plan for such things - but this was amazing. We had an overnight at a fun hotel by the ocean, they paid for my supper, we slept in and poked around some shops the next day, and we finished off our adventure with the most amazing pedicure of my life. Well...actually, it was the very first pedicure of my life. And it was amazing, let me tell you.

I am still completely blown away by the love and spoiling that these sweet friends showered upon me. It was fun. It was silly. It was serious. It was safe. It was the three of us getting to know each other in a different way and on a different level. It showed me how blessed I am to have such amazing women in my life who love me for who I am and who care enough to take the time and spend the money and the effort to plan such a lovely and extravagent surprise.

It was humbling, really.

It made me all sappy and fiercely protective...and not like I never would have before, but I feel like, man, if they would do this special thing for me - there is nothing that I wouldn't do for them.

That's the power of friendship and acceptance.
The gift of walking through life together.
And the security in knowing that we all may do things a little differently and we may not see everything completely eye to eye, and we may all be at different stages of the journey....

But that's the beauty of it all.
We walk together and we glean and we challenge and we learn from each other.
We are different, but we are safe.

It's a delicate dance with women. It know it, because I am one. But when we are blessed with friends who we can be ourselves with, and not allow ourselves to be threatened by them, and when we have a safe place where we can be confident and secure enough to slowly and maybe timidly step beyond the safe and the shallow...it can be a beautiful thing.

Thank you, sweet sister friends.
I am humbled and I am blessed beyond measure.

***********************
1801. The blessing of friendship.
1802. Trusting my friends with a surprise - and being blown away.
1803. The sacrifice of time, money, energy, and effort - for me.
1804. A husband who can keep an amazing secret.
1805. A Grammy who gives fun overnights for the wee ones.
1806. Being pampered like a lady - and not acting too immature....
1807. My love language - Acts of Service - spoken so loudly from friends.
1808. Being celebrated in a way that makes me want to pay it forward.
1809. Husbands who covered for us in our absence.
1810. Humbled and inadequate.