Precious friend

When I look at the last 10 years, I sometimes feel like it has been a huge roller coaster. College, marriage, moving to OK, moving to WA, moving back to TX, deaths, births, numerous job changes, etc. Two of the wonderful blessings that have come out of this ride are new family and new friends. I have many new relationships in my life that I know will last forever. I love all of you who are relatively new to my life, but in this post I want to focus on a friend that I have had since the beginning of my memory.
Becca (Shoemaker or Fitzpatrick- however you know her) has been my dearest girlfriend my whole life. She is the sister I never had and the friend I hope to be to others. My dad always called her his adopted daughter because that's exactly what she has meant to our family. We have been through so much together over the years. It sounds like a marriage vow, but we have truly experienced good times and bad, sickness and health, riches and poverty; and our friendship is a lifetime commitment. We have lived in different states and time zones for the last 10+ years, but our friendship is one that always picks up right where we left off. I love that. I'm sure you all have friends like this too. Some of you even share this lifetime friendship with Becca that I do.
So why is Becca so much on my mind today? Well, I have wanted to write this for over a week now, but I've been really busy. I saw Becca in NM over my fall break, and the visit was just too short. I was at her home in Malibu when I received the news about my Dad's brain tumors last year. The last time I saw Becca was at my Dad's funeral and she was about 7 months pregnant. Dad never got to meet his adopted granddaugther, and I just met her last weekend. My precious friend now has the most precious baby girl. Bailey is truly the happiest baby I have ever seen. She laughs at everything and just thinks the whole world is hilarious. She cracks me up. I got such joy out of meeting her, but it brought a bit of sadness at the same time. I wish Dad could have held her, seen her smile, and heard her laugh. I feel so blessed by Becca's friendship and I pray that Bailey will experience a lifelong friendship like ours. Sometimes I wish all my friendships were like this one, but then I realize that this one would not be as special if they were all the same. I love you, Becca, and thank you for being the wonderful friend that you are!