Caviar and Good Friends

We have friends.

No seriously, we do. {Despite what my father-in-law says, they really ARE more than just “acquaintances” 😉 }

In fact, we have some really good friends.

Some have lived with us (like the family who has lived in our basement the past 3 weeks while waiting to close on their new home).

Some have gone on vacation with us (like our camping trip last year where we had to fight off skunks with water guns).

And some bring us caviar!

My husband has had a hankering to try caviar straight from Russia for ages.  Lo and behold, some friends of ours show up one night last week with just that very thing! 

{These are the same friends who couldn’t find a good place to have a picnic in the city one day, so they had one in our backyard…while we were on vacation!}

Then, there’s the friends who live with us right now.  Some people croak when I tell them I’ve had a family of 5 living with us for 3 weeks.  In fact, the first question out of their mouths (said with very “knowing” eyes) is, “and how’s that going?”  It’s going fine.  Actually, better than fine.  It’s been nice to have several extra sets of hands around the house as I languish in late pregnancy. 

{These are the same friends who gave us their own homemade hope chest to put Emmy’s things in because we had nothing else to store those precious memories in.}

How about the family we went on vacation with last year?  Surely 10 kids, the heat, and the skunks spelled disaster!  Nope. 

{These are the same friends whose house we were staying at when Emily died. And as we walked out the door that day to be driven back to our own home, my husband said, “I don’t know if we can ever come back.”  To which, they replied, “Then we’ll move. And they did.}

Ty and I have been blessed with many friends.  Friends we know we could call in the middle of the night if we needed to.  Friends who know THEY can call US in the middle of the night if they need to.  Our home is an open invitation to these people who have seen us at our worst and at our best and love us just the same for it.

A man who has friends must himself be friendly,
But there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

A friend loves at all times,
And a brother is born for adversity.

Ointment and perfume delight the heart,
And the sweetness of a man€™s friend gives delight by hearty counsel.

The Bible talks much of friends.  Some are fair-weather-only-friends friends.  Some are misery-loves-company friends.  Then, there are those who are there for the long-haul.  It’s a relationship that just flows with give and take and mercy and love.  There are hearty discussions (where we don’t always agree) and big bear hugs when we part company.

God knows we need these types of relationships.  They spur us on, they lift us up, they give us opportunities to serve and be served.  It is the fellowship of believers at its very best.

Children playing, adults laughing, an open kitchen, a somewhat clean bathroom, a free bed for the weary, lively conversation, and…

caviar.