Best Friends and cousins

Before we were friends we were enemies.  My cousin, Sarah and I use to fight after spending more than one day together.  Our older brothers thought it was funny, they thought we were just playing but we weren't.  I remember one distinct time we were in the barn going at each other, pulling hair, biting and all the works.  Our two older brothers were there cheering and clapping.  As the years went by things got a little better.  By the time we were in our lower teens we could bear each others presence for two to three days.  Then after that, in my mind it, became a competition of who was better what I could do to make her look bad and make people like me more than her. There was and still is something about Sarah, that everyone loves.
  Kids are naturally drawn to her and adults can quickly be caught up in talking to her about anything.
During the middle teens and  upper teens we became best friends.  Sarah came down with cancer when she was 13 going on 14.  It was a crazy time in life, for the next few years she battled cancer, I wrote her letters and constantly prayed that God would heal my best friend.  After watching her go through many trials, loosing her hair, being sick, spending long amounts of time in the hospital,  her time with cancer was over and I saw a beautifully strong girl with an amazing sense of humor emerged from the struggles!  Her faith was stronger than ever and she was such an example of faith.

Throughout high school we talked about traveling together and after I graduated we wanted to go to Honduras together, but I had just gone to Peru and so she went without me.

We didn't give up hopes though a few summers later we went on our first adventure together.  WE went to Peru, South America.  We spent most of our time in Lima, Peru, where we helped out at a Christian school and stayed with friends.  We enjoyed walking around Lima and seeing all there was to see.  We also spent one weekend traveling to Cusco, Peru were we got to see Machu Picchu and explore Cusco.  She was very patient with me when I got sick in Cusco, due to food poisoning!  We felt like such great adventurers!!!  The most memorable thing about Peru was getting the chance to eat guinea pig. Not something we'd want to try again but it was worth the experience.

The next summer we didn't know if we'd be able to travel, but I was drawing closer to getting engaged and married so we decided it might be our last chance for a little while.  Thirty days before we wanted to leave we bought tickets to Guatemala and signed up for two weeks of Spanish school in Antigua, Guatemala.  This was a bigger adventure, because in Peru we knew people but in Guatemala we were going out all on our own!

In Antigua we learned Spanish, hiked a active volcano, and visited a little lake set in the midst of towering mountains.  We fell in love with Antigua and picked out the houses we would live in, if we ever moved there.  We also found a home that nursed malnourished children back to health.  We sat and held the babies and fed them milk, from a spoon, ever couple hours!



Our time passed quickly and the night we arrived home I got engaged!  She knew it was going to happen and didn't tell me!!!! She was there on the beach when Asa asked me to be his wife.  Through the next six weeks Sarah was a VERY supportive bridesmaid and even though she was busy in college she made time to be at my bridal shower and my
wedding

Together down life's road we walk... and all the while, I talk!

I could go on and on of stories, adventures and times together but I'll leave those for another time.  Although Sarah and I no longer fight, I'm still jealous of her.  I'm jealous of her zeal and commitment to God and the adventures she still has to go on.  Sarah has now graduated and started out on an adventure without me.  She is now in Cambodia teaching school for the rest of the semester.  I wanted to write this blog post because she has been my best friend, through the years, AND I want YOU to check out her blog, Sarah's Adventures, and follow her journey! She's always had an amazing way with words and I know you will be caught up in her adventures as I have!  Someday we'll travel together again and I'm so proud of her grit and spirit in all that she goes through!

Do you have someone who you went from enemies to best friends over the years?  Since I'm being all cheesy I'd love you to join me, tell me about your special friends!