A different kind of anniversary

All of these women including myself, have a very important thing in common. It is the thing that introduced us, and in the beginning what kept us together. We all have babies that were born in September 2000. We met online through an email group.

In the heyday of our group, there were over 20 members. It was odd at the time to belong to a group like ours. We were sharing details of our lives with strangers that not only were all over the country, but all over the world. There were discussions about our older children, our husbands, our jobs and of course our pregnancies. There was this abandonment of our personal social facade. We were able to be utterly honest because there was a safeness in the anonymity of it all.

Over the years members have come and gone, but we have stayed, the roots of our friendship running deep, binding us together in a way that I don't think any of us at the time could have possibly fathomed. We know each other's dreams and fears. We have shared the secrets that we hide from the rest of the world. We have celebrated with each other during times of complete bliss, and we have held each other when our worlds were falling apart, even though we are all states (and continents) away from each other. 

A few of us have been lucky enough to meet face to face, and it didn't take long to slide into the intimate comfortableness that only old friends share.


In your lifetime you make be fortunate enough to have one such friendship, one who loves you for all that you are, and everything your not. But to know that you have six such people in our lives...

So, on the eve of our children's entrance into double digits, the Wise One said:

 First, i can't believe they are gonna be 10.  But mostly, I think it is amazing and wonderful how we have stuck with each other despite distance and different lives - through almost all of us moving, relationships ending, more children coming, jobs gotten and lost, careers changing, new ventures begun, illness and problems with our kids and our families and friends.  We have supported and encouraged each other - given advice - shared ideas - and just chatted.  A lot of people probably couldn't understand it, but somehow it has meant a lot to all of us over these years.  I really love and appreciate the friendship of all of you.

and we all happily agreed. 

These strong, beautiful, powerful, intelligent, honorable, loyal, astonishing women make my life better because they are in it. And even though thousands of miles may separate us, that doesn't make what we have any less than just the complete and unadulterated awesomeness that it is. 


Happy September 2010!