Lifelong friends

We met some friends for dinner this past Friday night. Now, these just aren't some random friends that you have little in common with...these are friends that we are bound to for life!

Let me give you a little history on the crazy way we met and have remained friends with Pat and Barb. Don and I went to NYC on our 1st wedding anniversary. Well, me being the big nerd I am, had to go to The Today Show to see if we could get on TV (we did but when Campbell Brown asked me during a commercial break if I wanted to talk when they came back on air I freaked out and said I couldn't do it.) Anyway, I noticed that there was a couple standing not far from us with a Clemson flag. Since Clemson is down the road from us I wondered aloud to Don if they were from Greenville. Don looked over at them and realized he actually had met Pat through a business function. So, we ended up talking to them and standing next to them the rest of the morning. We laughed a lot that morning and I think I embarrassed Pat with all my crazy antics.

Fast forward several years...Don called me one day at work and asked me if I remembered the couple we had met in New York. He told me that Barb was pregnant and had gone into labor early. She ended up having sweet Faith at only 25 weeks (weighing in at a whoppin' 1 lb, 10 oz.) It was September of 2003 and I was pregnant with Max and I just couldn't even imagine having a baby so small. Well, six weeks later I was in the hospital having my sweet boy too. Barb called me immediately and gave me a pep talk and filled me in on life in the NICU. She printed out labels for breast milk bottles (a pain to write out so she made it so easy for me), checked in on us constantly and was such a huge support for me. Faith will be 5 this September and, honestly, she has never skipped a beat! She is in perfect health and is such a sweet little girl.

Here are some pictures of the earlier days. Flashback circa summer of 2002. This picture was taken the day we met Pat and Barb (in fact, I'm pretty sure one of them took the picture). By the way, I loved David Bloom and was so sad when he died. The day we were there he stayed outside and talked to every single person who wanted to talk to him or have their picture taken with him.I believe this picture of Faith and Max was taken the summer of 2004. How cute and bald are they?!?!I think the following two were taken the fall of 2006. Pucker up!
Then these pictures are from this past Friday night. They're growing up way too fast!! Introducing Pat and Barb Fountain!No Barb...I said kiss Pat not me!Pat invited his cousins to come along which was fine with me until they got out of the car and had these contraptions on...definitely not the subtle route. This "band" was playing in a plaza in downtown Greenville and let me tell you what...they could JAM!!
Max put a dollar in their bucket, but as you can see Faith thought the music was too loud and didn't want to do it...
...until it was time to leave and then she realized that maybe she DID want to put money in their bucket. But it was too late and she was a little sad.

So that's my story and I'm stickin' to it!