Kirsten Tyrrel: Best Friends Forever. But Really.

It has been almost 9 years since my divorce was final from my first husband. Weird. What's weirder is that phase of my life doesn't even seem like it really happened. More like a movie I watched once. One of the best things to come of that marriage ending was the friends I made before meeting Ben. One of them was Lauren. We had actually known each other since we were 13 and had been in the same theater classes for years. But we went to different high schools and didn't ever hang out outside of our dance and music classes. So I knew her as a kind of wild soul who at one point had dyed the ends of her very blonde hair RED. Or was it black? Some super outlandish color ;) So when we met up with our mutual friend Lindsey whom I was working with at the bank and saw the movie Rent I had no idea our friendship would begin...or rather....resume? We discovered that night we were both going through awful breakups. Her with her long time beau and me with, well...the first husband. We became instant best friends and within months were room mates. We did a lot of crazy things together from dance parties at 2 a.m. to dance parties in WalMart with the little music preview machine they have that plays clips of songs on the CD's they're selling. We were just awesome like that. So it was a little hard to let her go when she met Jake. I wasn't too excited about her falling in love and moving away to get married. (ok I was. Because I'm a nice friend ok?!) But she did. And they've had awesome adventures together. They lived in Austin for a while just because...why not? And in November of 2013 they adopted their first gorgeous son, Edison. I wish I could see him more. One of the weirdest things about getting older and having kids is that unless you stay in the same town as your friends, you don't ever really KNOW their kids. You see them a few times a year and through instagram but that's it! And some friends I haven't even met all of their kids. Anyway...

As fate would have it after a long road of infertility, Lauren's body decided to get itself pregnant. Well I'm sure Jake helped...but anyway...she got pregnant. And now she'll have two boys 15 months apart. WHEW! No adventure on earth, be it with your bestie or your hubby, can prepare you for THAT! I'm looking forward to the crazed texts when she's hanging by a thread...because I've sent my fair share of them to her through these past years. Lauren, you are the friend I can see after months and feel like we never spent a moment apart. I miss our gmail chat days when we both had jobs we were "meh" about. I love looking back on our trip to Austin and the fun we had. I could have never made it through all my trials without you to rant to...without your advice and love! And I'm so excited to meet new baby Casto and watch your newest adventure begin. You've already been such a beautiful mother and I know you'll continue to be such! I love you! I'm so glad I got to take these for you. It was the best...