This Chapter

This is Kathryn. Kate. She is beautiful.
I've known her since I was 5.

There are so many things I could tell you about her. I don't really remember a time when Katie wasn't a part of my life. If my life were a book she would be in every chapter. When we were very young her mom got sick. Really sick. It seems Katie spent most of her childhood in hospital waiting rooms. In high school she stood by me through some times when most of my friends bailed. She introduced me to my future husband. We both married young; pretty much right out of high school. I have a picture of my Ethan and her Natalie together as infants, and we enjoyed all the crazy stories of bringing up a bunch of kids in little Cottonwood. In our 20's we did the young mom stuff--Thursday morning bible study, swapped recipes, shared some babysitting. We were even neighbors for a while. In our 30's we decided to take a whirlwind trip to Europe with Shelley and Cindy. I think that started our commitment to our yearly girls adventures that later included Shakespeare plays in Ashland, shopping in Sacramento, and elk scouting in Eastern Oregon. Haha...can you imagine ME elk scouting?! (I love you Shelley) Now we're in our 40's (well me, almost). This chapter is kind of hard for Kate right now. She finds herself in a place that I think she never could have imagined. I have watched this amazing girl struggle through a painful divorce and raising teenagers by herself. I have watched her do what needed to be done to support her family. She is going to school at night. She is planning this fabulous trip that she will take in a few years. She comes to my house and sleeps on my couch and we wake up to hot coffee/tea and laughter and the bond of a friendship that has endured decades.

If there is something I want you to know the most about Kate it is this: She is living each chapter well. I've rarely met anyone who loves God as much as she does. She has taught me something about this story called life. We aren't given the book of our life all at once. We live it out one chapter at a time. And how we live this chapter, determines what our next chapter will look like. Kate, I love the way you live out your chapters. I think this next one is gonna be a great one.