You know those moments when different pieces of your story collide? Like, when your parents visit your apartment, or your neighbors meet your co-workers for the first time... or when your roommates meet your childhood best friend... How about when two current roommates finally meet each other...?
You know about the "Women of the Hobbit Hole" - Emilee, Brie, Hannah and I - but there are actually two more official pseudo-roommates in our lives now - Mary and Beth. They are both kindred spirits (I keep finding more of those around here), funny, kind, quirky, authentic, and easy to be with. They both grew up on farms with multiple incredible brothers and strong Christian roots. They both love to sing and soak up meaningful relationship, and while one sports cowgirl boots and the other rocks red lipstick, you can tell they have the same Father, by their love.
They are "pseudo" because they only live with us part-time, a couple nights a week, a few meals scattered throughout, cuddle sessions, movies, and deep, late-night talks. We shuffle beds and make up couches to fit everyone in (the Hobbit Hole has a massive pantry but limited sleeping space), so we don't really have room for them to live here full-time. But until recently, they had never actually crossed paths... Mary leaves on Wednesday mornings, Beth arrives on Wednesday afternoons, and thus they pass each other like those elusive ships in the night.
Last Saturday, Mary invited us to the Bluffton Free Street Fair (which is very much like Autumn Leaves Festival in Mt. Airy, for those of you in NC), so Hannah, Brie, Beth and I decided to go together... and thus, Mary and Beth met. Aren't they cute?!
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| Mary and Beth |
Bluffton is Mary's hometown, so we got to meet some of her friends at the fair and got a bit of a "tour" of her story... homesteads, fields, her school, all with sweet Mary-memories attached. The next day Hannah and I went to Defiance, Ohio, to have lunch with Emilee's family... which was awesome, and getting to know her kind and generous and hilarious parents explained a lot about our Em. :) That night Brie's brother came to visit, which is always a treat for us, and he got to mingle with our local friends and family for a couple days.
I love when stories collide... like when the teens and ladies from NC came to visit, when Anna joined Hannah and I on our adventure, and when my friends here go home to NC with me. It means so much to me to share the different parts of my life with people I love, because I feel like it is a way for them to know me deeper. And whether it's in British Columbia, Oregon, Florida, North Carolina, Bluffton, Defiance, Fort Wayne or anywhere else in the world, it's fun to dive into other stories too, to know people I love even more.
