What a week!!!

One week ago, Josh, my AMAZING best friend came to visit me! He's my soul-mate, be it romantic or friendship or whatever...he really is! Anyway...his family goes to a cabin in Mountain View, AR, for a few days every year, and he stopped off to stay a night with me in Jonesboro before going on to Searcy to see his family. He drove 17 hours straight, starting at 2 am in Colorado, and arrived at my door at 7:45 last Friday evening. I'd gotten all dolled up...new dress and new shoes...and we went out to dinner at the Fuji Steakhouse, which is a Japanese hibachi restaurant. We had sushi and some of the hibachi stuff, and shared a glass of plum wine, which was quite possibly the best thing I've EVER tasted. My dress was perfect: black, just below the knee, sleeveless, with a cross-over/wrap neckline (I have no idea how to describe the neck...). I usually can't wear that kind of neck, though...I tend to...um...spill out...of them, haha! But this dress fit me absolutely perfectly! It smoothed all my troublesome spots and accentuated my good curves...SO flattering! And I only paid $13 for it! The shoes, though, just might have been my favorite part of the outfit. 3.5" heel, pointed toe (which I usually don't like, but these are actually comfortable!) and the color...Ferrari Red! They've got a pretty little edge detail, too. And Josh has a thing for pretty shoes on a girl ;-) So, when I opened the door when he arrived, we both just kinda grinned at each other for a minute, which was lovely! He gave me a big, LONG awaited hug, and then we went to dinner. After dinner, we came back to my place and talked for a while, and then he picked a movie to watch (Alfred Hitchcock's "Dial 'M' For Murder") which we didn't finish...he'd had a long drive, after all!
We both slept in a bit on Saturday, and then I made breakfast while he made a coffee run for us. We spent the day just kinda lazing around and talking. We spent a few minutes with Jessie, Chris, Casey, and Linda when they came into town, but mostly we just stuck to being the two of us.
Josh and I have talked nearly every day for a year now. I honestly don't know how I would have made it without him...he's been such an incredible friend. And even though this was only maybe the fourth time that we've spent any time face-to-face, it seemed completely natural. It was a BEAUTIFUL weekend!
I rode with him into Searcy on Saturday night, and went to Covenant on Sunday. I love being able to go home to them...there's not much about Searcy that I miss, but I truly miss Covenant and think about them every Sunday that I can't be there. It was great to be with them! Two ladies went forward with praises, thanking God for bringing them through some tough things, and I felt pulled to do the same. I've gone forward a million times asking for prayers for various things, but I've never gone back up to let people know how their prayers have been answered. I figured it was time to finally do that! I was shaking terribly (I'm crazy nervous about speaking in front of people, even when I know and love all of them!) but I managed to say what I wanted to say. I wanted to let them know just how far God has brought me in the last year. I've come through the darkest of dark places (starting last September) and I feel like now I'm finally in a place where there is more light than shadow in my life. It's taken a lot to get here, and I know that I couldn't have without the prayers that I KNOW Covenant offered continually on my behalf, and I just had to tell them that! I cried, of course, but a lot of people came up and surrounded me and prayed over me again, especially some of the women I'm closest to: Elizabeth Ross, Jeannie Burnett, Joyce Dickson, Jo Ronnau. These beautiful ladies have blessed my life beyond measure. My friend Shelby came up, too, and gave me a great big hug that nearly knocked me backward (those are the best kind!)His goofy smile brightened my day even more! I just couldn't contain my joy, and that's a rare feeling for me.
Most of the rest of the week was fairly mundane: work, yoga, trying to motivate myself to do the dishes...
Until last night. Back when I changed my phone number, I posted a status on FaceBook telling people to message me if they wanted my new number, since I don't intend to post it. Amy, Sara's sister, sent me a message with the subject "Sara" and in the body of the message, a phone number. No explanation or anything...just the number. I've been terrified of calling, since I didn't know if Sara was expecting it or if she'd want to talk, after the way things happened four years ago. If you don't remember that: she was my maid of honor and a couple of days later (after I'd gotten my things out of her apartment after the wedding) she just stopped talking to me. No reasons given, nothing apparent to me that would have made her not want to be my friend, especially after literally our entire lifetime of friendship. I've only had one other heartbreak to compare that to, and I honestly am not sure which was worse, and that's saying something. So...I programmed the number into my phone that day, and have danced around calling ever since. Every time I got up the nerve, I shied away...I didn't think I could handle the heartache that potentially awaited me on the other end of the line. I finally broke down and did it yesterday, though. I went into my bed room and sat down on the floor (so that I wouldn't have far to fall if I collapsed, which was entirely possible), took a few deep breaths, closed my eyes, and hit the call button. I knew it was her when she picked up, but I asked anyway, and she said yes, and I very timidly said "This is Penni." She started to SOB and said "Oh, my God! I can't believe you finally called me! I've missed you SO much! I told Amy to give you my number WEEKS ago & then when I didn't hear from you I thought you'd decided you didn't want to talk to me again!" She was so emotional that I could hardly make out her words. I didn't cry...I thought I would...but my reaction was SO strange. My throat was caught in between hysterical laughter and outright weeping, and I think I probably sounded like I was hyperventilating because my body just couldn't figure out what to do. It was probably pretty funny to see, so I'm glad nobody saw it! She said she didn't even know why she stopped talking to me, and that she'd long regretted it. I told her that it didn't even matter anymore; that we're talking now and that's all that I care about. We talked for probably half an hour, and then she had to go, but she told me several times that she wished I was there with her, and that she'd wished that a million times in the last four years and just was too scared or embarrassed to call me. She had to go, so I told her that I still love her SO much and that I'll always be her friend and more than anything, her sister. I cannot WAIT to get back to Fort Worth to see her and catch up, and hold her baby girl (she's being induced on Tuesday). I can't wait!
I'm going to call it a night now, but I just had to record this! I've truly been blessed this week.