Friends...how many of us have them?

This song is one of the most pure songs about friendship out there...."and if you threw a party, and invited everyone you knew; you would see the biggest gift would be from me and the card attached would say, 'thank you for being a friend' "Love it.

I have been thinking a lot about the importance of lasting friendship lately, in particular as it relates to my daughter. My oldest is a rising 5th grader and we just moved. I was really committed to making sure we stayed in the same town and communicated with the school district to make sure she could stay at the same school even if we moved within the district. Why? Because she has done really well in her present school, and I would not DREAM of moving her, her last year of grade school to a different school and peer group.

She has been fortunate to find really good friends, girls she's known since Kindergarten. They are thick as thieves, they Gchat, email, have playdates, get in fights, do all the things you do at that age. They "get" her and and she "gets" them as well. They have her back. When she's down, they lift her up and she tries to be a positive source for them as well. They have sleepovers, and go to D&B together, and had their first Benihana experience together. LOL. They love each other. One of her friends has an older sister who graduated from high school this year, and we saw her and her best friend since 4th grade off to prom. They have been the gruesome twosome since they were 8 and are now going to colleges across the street from each other in Atlanta. They have gone through their formative years knowing at the beginning and end of each day, triumph, and challenge they had someone who had their BACK.

That is what friendship is. And that is what I see growing with my daughter and her friends, and that is what I have with MY friends. It brings tears to my eyes to watch true friendship blossom. So many people these days are caught up in the exterior, the material, the silly---even children. I know so many people who don't have friends, or at least don't have TRUE friends. I feel blessed to have my down like four flat tires friends in my life. And I pray the same for my children. So if that means we live in a little apartment in our town instead of buying a sprawling mini-mansion in another town or even state; then so be it.

I want to give my daughter the opportunity, if I can, to know and feel what the above song means. Because Whodini said it best, "Friends, how many of us have them?"