When writing the title for this post, I imagined Boyz II Men singing that in my head. On stage. With a fog machine. Wearing all white suits…c’mon, you know you did too when you read it! But on to what I really wanted to talk about. Although this post is about a fun vacation with friends, it is also about a sad goodbye to some of our favorite and most treasured people on the planet. See, Joe and Hailey aren’t just friends, they are people we have walked through life together with, lived with, and who have seen Ty and I at probably some of our best and worst moments.
Joe and Ty actually go way back to their middle school days. I wish I had a picture handy, but all of Ty’s photo albums are shoved in the back of our storage closet in some mystery box. Some day, when we pull it out again, I will have to post some pictures from the early days of their friendship, because they are precious! They are obviously close with one another…
because this is not the only photo of its kind…
I’m sure they’ll both love me for that…
But Joe has been a fast and loyal friend to my husband for probably somewhere around 15 years. When I met Joe my senior year of high school through a mutual friend (I had yet to have the pleasure of meeting his friend Ty), it was obvious from the very beginning that he was someone who deeply loved God, who stood by his convictions, who was a natural leader (even among his peers), and who had such wisdom and joy. When I got to meet his girlfriend, Hailey, I was equally as impressed and prayed that that first meeting would be the beginning of a friendship together.
Fortunately for me, it was. I had never met someone who was so faithful and committed to their relationship with the Lord. I was so impressed by her character, her integrity, her compassion and her knowledge of scripture. But she could also be the silliest and most unexpected of the group. For example, her river dancing was famous among our group of friends, a marvel that even Joe was not privy to seeing until after they were married.
Since meeting at the age of 17, ten years ago now, we have walked through so much together. She is someone that knows me better than almost anyone else and who I know cares deeply about the condition of my heart, my marriage and my relationship with Christ. There are so few people I feel comfortable truly being myself around, and Hailey definitely makes that short list. We can cut straight to the heart of the matter and talk for hours about anything and absolutely everything.
Up until two weeks ago, Hailey has been either a roommate or a neighbor. When they got married and moved to Seattle, we ended up doing the same after our own marriage a year later. We’ve basically followed them from Eugene to Corvallis to Seattle. And now…well, now they’ve decided to relocate to Tennessee. Sad.
Being around for the big moments in each others lives is certainly going to be more difficult when there’s 1,000 miles between us. They’ve been there for us to take our engagement photos.
And be in our wedding.
And they even asked us to take their maternity photos, even though Ty and I are nothing close to professional photographers…Hailey had to talk us through it the entire time (check out her work at http://www.haileyrahmphotography.com).
But I believe whole-heartedly that the four of us have a friendship that will last a lifetime. Traveling to Tennessee with them was the best and worst thing we’ve done together in years. It was the best because I got to spend six days with my best friend. Time we haven’t had together like that since being roommates our sophomore year of college. But the worst because it was a six-day-long reminder of what we’re going to miss. These two seriously are some of the best people alive. Seeing each other is definitely going to be less frequent and much more expensive, but hopefully they’ll be back in the PNW soon enough. If not, Ty wins the bet and Joe, you owe us free flights out to Tennessee again! 😉
We love you Joe and Hailey! We expect a visit this spring when baby Trimble makes his or her arrival.
tyandmal 
Wow….I am humbled and so very blessed by your kind words my dear friend, Mal. I miss you tons. and you said it all perfectly – we have shared some amazing moments together and you too know me like no one else does. I appreciate YOUR friendship that has been such a huge blessing to me in SO many different ways. I cherish the past 10 years of our growing friendship and will never forget the week we shared as you helped us move out here to TN. You and Ty are amazing friends and you both have blessed us way more than you will ever know. I love you guys! ( I am gonna go searching through old pics and get those out somehow! I loved what you posted….to GREAT times!!)