And Then There Were Two

I took my kids to a playdate today, it being spring break and all. It was so good to get out of the house. This spring break has been rough, with both girls being sick and now I have the bug... but it was worth a little suffering through sickness to have the kids release some of that pent-up energy, as well as giving me some "friend" time with the other moms.

I got to thinking about this little "group" of ours, and how it's dwindled. This particular playgroup started about seven years ago when me and another friend from church had our first babies. We became friends, and brought some more friends into the fold from the church, until it was a solid group of 5 families. We had other families come and go from the church, but this group was pretty solid. We had babies from 1998 to 2004 - 12 kids in all.

But my kids learned at a pretty early age that friends come in and out of your lives regularly. The first family moved to Nevada in 2002. It was especially hard on the moms, at that time we all had babies and were such a support system for eachother, could we survive the broken bond? Of course, we're still friends with that family and I try to talk to my friend on the phone regularly and the kids still delight in the occasional visits and pictures we get from the kids.

We were severed again in 2004, when another family moved to Scotland. This one was also very hard, for several reasons. That family had just had twins and with no other family around for them, our "group" loved being the go-to guys for taking care of these two little babies. Whether it was entertaining the oldest daughter or holding a baby while the other was being fed/changed/rocked, we were up for the challenge! Also hard was losing the priest we'd come to love at our church, as he was the "dad" of this family and work took him elsewhere.

Now another is leaving our shrinking group - albeit the family is moving only an hour away and we'll still see them, it does seem like my kids are learning about the value of friendship - not losing friends but keeping them in a different capacity. I want them to remember that these early childhood friends are ones that helped shaped them into who they are (one introduced my youngest daughter to cutting her own hair) and I think it's my responsibility to teach them that friendships don't end just because miles separate them.

Being so young, it's hard to remind them of these kids and keep the young friendships, except through, of course, pictures. (you know I was going there, right?) A friendship album is the perfect way to remind kids of friends, family and experiences. And having them create the album themselves is even more meaningful. My friend who moved to Nevada (now in Indiana) was given a little "Friends from Oregon" album upon her departure in 2002 and tries to keep it up regularly by asking for current pictures of all the kids who live here.

We took this one today, three of these kids will be moving in a couple months. Then, only two families will remain in our town. But the friendships will continue in some capacity because the memories will remain strong.