Looking back over the years we have come a long way with our friendship. From first grade till now, a lot has changed..as she will laughingly admit to as well. We were at each others houses all the time, and we were the two tiniest gals in class. I'm pretty sure we got on each others nerves quite a bit at an early age. For those of you who know us, can you imagine two extremely young, little girls voicing their opinions all the time? If she said something I didn't like, I would just tell her, and vice versa.(pretty much like how we are today, lol)
Our friendship circles eventually took different paths, but we came full circle again...I don't know if it was our pregnancy losses at the same time, or if we would have eventually crossed paths again if we didn't go through that, but there must have been some sort of rhyme or reason. Things do happen for a reason.
Many people might not know that when I was in the hospital losing Cora, Laurie was in a hospital, too. She had lost a pregnancy as well. I didn't even know till way later, even when she was coaxing me on the phone about my loss.She was there for me, because even though she was mourning her loss, she felt like what I went through was worse. When she finally told me, I was sorta shocked. I hadn't even known she was pregnant in the first place. Thinking back I can't even recall much because I was in such a crazed state, but I do remember her just knowing exactly what to say. I'm sure I wasn't much help to her at the time...for her loss..A lot of that time was a blur. I wish I could have been better for her at the time as well.
A few months went by, and we were pretty darn close. We were both trying to get pregnant again. Laurie and I agreed that if either of us got pregnant, we had to tell each other right away and not hide it form one another. Laurie corrected me last night that I bullied it outta her...so I got the phone call, first. "Michelle, I took a test, and I'm pregnant again". Me-"oh my gosh! I'm so happy for you!" Me after hanging up- I threw a glass picture frame at the wall. (not my finest moment) Remember, I had just gave birth to my baby two months prior, and had her remains were in a box in my bedroom. Lots of emotions. My freak out made a little more sense when a week later I called her with the same news. "Laurie, I am too!" Mix that post par tum depression with raging pregnancy hormones. What a cocktail. WE WERE PREGNANT AGAIN!
We went through our pregnancies together, and both were pretty rough. We both had some major bleeding scares.Lauries was way scarier. At one point the doctors didn't know if Hudson was going to make it to twenty some weeks. She said they feared she might lose him. Once again, Lauries faith provided her with that same calmness. Here I am freaking out, and she is saying, "I don't have any control over this". Needless to say, our little dudes hung on, and stayed for the long hall. I ended up giving birth a few weeks before poor Laurie, who was really ready to get Hudson out and meet him! It was really fun getting together with our little miracles that took longer than we expected to come. Through loss and life, we got through it, together.
We started talking on the phone a lot, and text messaging. I was eager for her to move back to MI, and was annoying her all the time with "when? when? when will this happen?", and she would say "Michelle, we have to sell our properties, etc, and get things in order, it's gonna take some time". I didn't mind bothering her with my persistence. She kept saying, "probably in three years". I was like, "noooooooooo, it must be sooner." It did end up being sooner and I was so excited!
I remember I was up at Silverlake at the cottage on vacation in July, when I got that first phone call. "Michelle, it's Laurie, Errick has Stage 4 Colo-rectal Cancer." I think that is what she said at least...all I can remember is her calmness, and the words cancer and Errick, in the same sentence. My memory sucks, as Laurie will probably share. I am better with writing the gist of everything. I was trying to keep cool, I'm not sure if I did..I think I burst into tears....and then she said, "I need a haircut asap"..So, I got in the car and drove home, so I could cut her hair ;-) When your friend says something like that, and all she asks is for a trim, you race to get to your scissors as fast as you can.
The rest of Errick and Lauries journey you have all kept up with. I can only say how amazed I am at the both of them. Do you people know that Laurie works full-time?? Do you know she keeps her head on straight enough to do an amazing job at work, and even surpasses sales goals? Do you know that with working full-time, keeping up with doc appointments and scheduling different appointments for her loving husband, they both managed to create a child prodigy?! hehe. He so is. Did you know that even though Errick has endured chemo for the past almost two years now, (is it almost two years now?) he has managed to go to the gym to keep healthy, help his friends with projects around their houses, build train tables for their kids, create artistic crown molding creations in their gorgeous new house, and keep his faith strong?Did you know that Errick cooks for his family?(jealous!) Did you know that Errick had a 15 hour surgery??Can you believe this?? Do you know with everything they are going through, they are still their for ALL of their friends?? They ask for nothing in return but support, and prayers. I don't know where all this energy comes from, but Laurie will tell you she is pretty pooped sometimes, even though she doesn't look it!(seriously, you don't).
They ended up building a home here together after living with her extremely awesome parents when they moved to town. I must bring up her parents here.Lauries mom is such a sweet woman. Her dad cooked them dinner every night, and her mom helped watch Hudson anytime they needed. Marcia, you rule.
Ramble ramble...I know...I just wanted to share how lucky I am to be friends with Laurie, and that I still have a lot of more to learn from her. Sometimes I joke with her that she is a female version of Derrick. Usually when Derrick and I get into an argument, Laurie will understand his side more. Haha, not funny, but true. :-) You can even call her anytime of day, and she will answer. Well, you can't, but maybe I can. lol.
Shell
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