Operation "Social Life" - Back on Track

I've realized a very important thing about myself over the last few years - friends are important to me. Although I come from a close family of three children, my friends are very much my family. So when my husband and I decided to pack up and leave the Big City so we could downsize and allow me to stay home with Baby Girl, I had to say good-bye to a very important part of my life - my friends.

Back in the Big City we had a great group of friends. We all seemed to be moving through the same stages of life together - first we bought houses, then we got dogs, next we got married and finally we were starting to have kids. We saw each other all the time, had dinner parties, looked out for eachother. It was everything I had always wished for in an adult social life.

So moving was hard. Ultimately I knew that we would make new friends (or should I say, I would make new friends....my husband is a bit of an introvert), but it's hard to start from scratch. New friends don't hold the same comfort as old friends. Old friends KNOW you. There are things you don't have to explain. When there's a lull in the conversation, you can always revert back to "do you remember when...." conversations. You can jump immediately into a deep meaningful conversation, when you really need to talk something out.

The last three years have been slow and somewhat painful. We went through a time when I could have really used that support circle of friends - we had our second child, who was born with a disability we weren't expecting. I've been lonely. But slowly I've started to make some friends. With time and perseverance (I'm one of those extroverted friends that Bub and Pie talked about here), I've found some wonderful friends. This summer I feel like I have friends that I could call anytime to get together, not feel like I have to make plans weeks in advance to fit into each other's schedules. I like the feeling that we can go to the playground and know that we'll probably run into someone we know. We're doing things in the community that shows we are here to stay.

Tonight we hosted our first summer BBQ at our new house with some new friends and it felt so good to sit and talk while our kids ran around in the yard playing together. Tonight I felt like my hopes for our adult social life are back on track.