summer in winter

I started this little blog of mine a very long time ago. I was still some what of a newly wed. I was childless (well, except for the dog). I worked a full time job that I hated. I dabbled in taking pictures of my friends. I thought the idea of meeting people on the internet was still reserved for the truly desperate.

So why did I blog?

Well, to be perfectly honest, it all started with Cameron. I fell in love with his photography. He inspired me more than any photographer ever had (and probably ever will, he's pretty much the coolest). Back before he was a husband and a father he used to blog about more than his photography. He talked about his relationships, he posted about personal sessions like a home birth and his trip to New York where he proposed to his now lovely wife. But he also posted about his best friend Chris and his wife Emery.

Emery was a mommy blogger. The first I'd ever read. Her words spoke deep into my soul. As a woman, a wife, a believer. I religiously read her blog. I eventually worked up the nerve to comment. I geeked out the first time she commented back. And then it happened. We commented back and forth regularly. I guess you could say she was my first blogging friend.

From Emery's blog I found another mommy blogger. Summer. Summer and I also started commenting on each others blogs. She was deep. A very intellectual, thoughtful writer. She and Emery both inspired the writer in me to once again, find my voice. And while I have not always let her sing, she is here because of the encouragement I received from those two women. Women who lived completely different lives than me. Women who lived states away. Internet people. But internet people that were becoming very dear to me.

Then it happened. I was going to Seattle for a dear friends wedding. Summer did the bold, brave thing and asked if we wanted to meet. Yes! Of course! Yes! But naysayers in my life could not believe me, meet internet people? What if she isn't who she says she is? You don't really know her! But my mom, in her wise, thoughtful way encouraged me to be brave.

And there we were. My husband and newborn son. Her husband, child, with another on the way. In a cafe across from the Pike Street Market. Sharing stories, how we met our spouses, the things we liked, the things we do. We shared life. And it was over way too soon. But something for Summer and I clicked. I knew that was not the end. We both knew it was just the beginning. Oh, how thankful I am that it was.

The following summer, Emery, Summer and I cooked up a plan to have a girls weekend in Oregon. Canon beach to be exact. We wanted to meet each other more than anything, but we were also plotting a way to create a believers blog convention. While nothing came of our plan, it was AWFULLY fun to dream about it right girls?

Time has passed. I've had a second son. Emery has had TWO more sons. Summers life got turned upside down. We still live very different lives. In different states. But no longer just internet people. And while Emery and I have yet to meet face to face (It WILL happen, I just know it ;) here we are, Summer and I, over fours years after the first and only meeting, meeting again.

I get to hug my friend. A friend I hardly know, but deeply love. A friend so far removed from my daily life, yet held so closely in my heart. I get to rejoice with her. Rejoice in all that the Lord is doing in her life. All that He is restoring. All that He is creating anew. Our God truly, is an awesome God.

And Canon Beach can't come fast enough.