Snapshots, behind the scenes...

I went to a leader training at our church recently and one thing he talked about was how we all have these pictures up around our house of happy memories but what we don't have pictures of is the life in between, the people who come over at 2am, the ones that sit with you while you are sad, mad, silent, confused, lost. The people who make up the behind the scenes of your life. I got to thinking of our life in snapshots and what you see in them is not exactly what Drew or I see...

Let me give you an example and take you behind the scenes of our snapshots for a minute...

Disclaimer: I'm going to be pretty honest here, just so ya know.

You see-Adrienne and I after we got pedicures!!!

We see- Adrienne and I after we got pedicures because she needed to find some space to relax after her friend had just tragically and suddenly passed away.

You see- Me with Drew and our friend during a recent game night!

We see- A friend we love at a recent game night... but among the laughter and remember whens, we also got to hear a little about his search for a job right now.

You see- Drew and I on our anniversary this year :)

We see- Us on our anniversary this year, but we see people in this picture that you don't. We see my sister who I wasn't sure was going to be at my wedding, walking down the isle with newly grown hair on her head. We see our nephew Jacob walking down the isle in Colorado and not in Guatemala where at times it felt like he would never get to come home from. We see our friends and mentors up late at night talking on the phone, sitting in parking lots through tears, praying with us, challenging us and walking with us through our first two years of marriage. I said to him that night that I was so happy to be married to him, but I am so glad that those two years are behind us. I don't mean that there weren't wonderful times, and I wouldn't want to be married to anyone else, but those were hard years for us, I'm not going to sugar coat that.

You see- me and two incredibly cute boys :)

We see- me with Jack and Rocko. They are sweet, kind, hilarious and wonderful kids, we love spending time with them and I hope to be the kind of mom one day that Julie is to these boys.

You see- Adrienne helping me unpack our new kitchen when we moved out of their house.

We see-Adrienne helping me unpack our kitchen, but what's not in the picture are the words said after she left about how thankful we were for the past year together where we became more like family than friends, or the tears that surprised me when she walked out the door and my 'home' was officially not her home. You also can't see her beautiful pregnant belly that we spent half of our year asking God for and the 2nd half praising and thanking Him for. You can't see the anticipation in my heart this very moment of the giant party that will be taking place in their hospital room any day now as this little man graces us with his adorable, beautiful and perfect little self.

You see- Jess and I with my boyfriend (her baby) on his first birthday!

I see- A promise made 6 years ago to walk beside each other no matter what life threw our way, and there have been some curve balls and some that have hit us square in the gut, and even some that knocked us down but in this picture I see that promise kept.

You see- Rachel, Jill and I with adorable baby Janie, yes, all wearing the same color @ church one Sunday

We see- Two women who were new friends last summer and teach me about faith, truth and being mommies and wives. I believe with out a doubt God blessed me with them at just the perfect time.

As I put this together I realized I couldn't really be as raw and honest as I wanted to because a lot of the 'behind the scenes' in our snapshots aren't our stories to tell. But here is the best example I could give.

We are incredibly blessed with the people who walk behind the scenes with us day to day. I don't think we'd be where we are or who we are today with out them. These are a few of people who we walk through life with, sometimes we mess up and let each other down, but most of the time it is a pretty cool way to get through the rough spots and bask in the wonderful ones.

I think what Drew and I have is rare. I heard a random celebrity say the other day that she thinks we have ruined intimacy but that we are all running around looking for it everywhere. She said everyone is talking (Facebook, blogs texting, Twitter) but no one is really saying anything or being heard. We all want to know others and be known but letting people into the corners of our heart and life is not easy and not always fun. I think it is how we were made to live, with each other, learning from and with each other, challenging each other, sitting next to each other when there are no words and celebrating together every chance we get! Sometimes I have to remind myself this, but believe me... it's worth the risk.

Thanks to those of you reading this who are our behind the scenes friends, our A Team :) some of you are pictured here and some not...you know who you are. We very well might be lost with out you.

A friend is always loyal, and a brother born to help in the time of need.
Proverbs 17:17