Being a mom is hard.
Being a good friend as a mom can feel really hard.
When you add in special needs parenting, things can get even more complicated. We suddenly don’t go out to dinners, frequent anyone else’s homes, or even take our eyes off our child for very long. We rarely feel comfortable getting babysitters or losing the security of having our eyes on our child at all times.
But I am a firm believer that quality over quantity in friendship is vital! I have had the best of friends turn out to only be interested in their own outcome. I have had friends who only lasted for certain parts of my life and now we watch each other’s kids grow up on social media. We may have never had a falling out or even knew things were changing, but they did.
However, I can think of a few that never wavered through all the different roads in life. And for those friends, we are so very thankful!
When I think of how blessed we are, I can’t forget to include the few friends that we have kept along the way. The few that have been around for it all! The ones that we grew up with, partied through our early 20s with, watched each other get married, start families, and now go through daily life. It’s the friends that we may not see often or for months at a time, but we can pick back up right where we left off. There are no grudges. It’s just catching up like it hasn’t been months since we last talked.
So, as someone who doesn’t quite feel worthy of the friendships that I have, I want to say thank you.
Thank you to the friends who continue to invite us to your birthday parties whether we show up or not. Whether we all show up or maybe just a few of us.
Thank you to the friends who continue to invite us over to their houses even though we come with a lot of baggage and even more chaos.
To the friends who let our daughter eat all the sweets out of your pantry without even blinking an eye. The ones who know her love of snacks and would go the extra mile to make her welcome in your space.
A huge thank you to the friends who continue to show up to all of our kids’ birthday parties and celebrate the big and small victories for us.
We couldn’t do it without the friends who love our kids like their own.
So even on the days, weeks, and months that we go without chatting, just know that we love you. We appreciate your friendship. And we really do think about you even when we may be in the thick of parenting.