The Mellons

Just to warn you this is going to be long!

Today, I am especially thankful for my mellons. I want to dedicate this post to my best friends--the mellons. I am so thankful for all of them. They have provided me with love and support. They have provided me with lots of laughter and memories.

First, you may ask yourself the question "What does she mean by mellons?" That is a legitimate question. (One of you, if I am wrong please correct me!) It happened one day while we were hanging out at the beach. One of us was reading Lord of the Rings. I think it may have been me, but as they can tell you I don't have the best memory. In Lord of the Rings the group has come upon a door that they needed to open. It had elvish writing on it. Tolkien decided to use the word Mellon for the elvish word for friend. So, who ever was reading it said that, and it has stuck with us ever since. I know we are nerds! Some of us have been friends since birth. Others have been friends since high school. We stayed close through out college--I truly believe the friendships were cemented the summer after freshman year in college due to the Bible Study Erin helped organize. Ever since then: we do a weekly email check in. We share our thanksgivings/praises, our prayer requests, and a story from the week. Mondays are not everyone's favorite day of the week, but there is a time on Monday does bring me great joy. I open up my email and see check-in's from my best friends.

Okay, so let me tell you something special about each friend:

1. Rebecca G./Meerlings--Rebecca and I grew up together. We went to the same church and have basically been friends since birth (we are only a few weeks apart in age). Rebecca is my go-to person when I need a nurse to talk to. Rebecca helped me a lot when Joel was studying in Honduras. I remember going to Brookside CRC with her on Sundays. She is an amazing person and has so much strength and love to give! Rebecca and I went to preschool together and graduated from Calvin College together!
2. Stephanie/Mungo--I talk to her almost weekly on the phone, sometimes more than that. She is the fellow social worker in the group. She will tell you about one time I didn't want her to come to my house when we were little, (I have known Steph since preschool), and my older brother made me play with her. I am so sorry for that. I can truly be myself around her. Mungo was a nickname that some other girl's came up with at school and it has stuck. She likes to have fun and get crazy, which I think the nickname Mungo captures and why it stuck. I have laughed so hard with her that my stomach hurts.
3. Melanie--I love Mel! She is another friend I have known since kindergarten. Melanie is probably the quiet one in our group. But, don't let that fool you. She loves to have fun. She enjoys the outdoors and hosts us at her parent's cottage. :) Her family has donkeys, which I think is awesome! Melanie is so insightful and she is so cute! One thing I remember about Melanie is that she put the idea of me and Joel being more than friends in my head. During our sophomore year chemistry class she predicted Joel and I would be married someday and that we'd be really cute together.
4. Bethany--Bethany and I became friends throughout high school, especially while working on the Echo, our high school newspaper. We'd spend hours after school working on layout. We were co-editors-in-chief during our senior year. Bethany is so intelligent. She is going to get her PhD and be famous in her field--I can feel it. (She may not all the time, but that is why she has us.) Did you know that Bethany dated Joel before me? Yup, and I still love her! Actually, Bethany is how Joel and I got reacquainted after our sophomore chemistry class. Thanks Beth!
5. Rebecca M. (wait--it is now B.) or as we like to call her G--G is so much fun. I became friends with her during high school. We were Dutch Dance partners. We had a lot of fun during those practices. (Maybe too much sometimes.) I will never forget making G a dream coat and singing "Go Go Go Garkus, you know what they say..." Yes, G is a shortened form of Garkus a name that stuck after Joel said it only once. She puts up with us very well for calling her that. :)
6. Erin--Like I mentioned a few days ago, Erin and I became friends during high school biology. We are both pretty certain that Dr. VanderKooy tried to sit us together--maybe not the first time, but totally the second time when we changed seats. We lived pretty close to each other, so often times when one of us needed to talk we would rush over to each other's house. We also did an astronomy project together for physics. I remember having fun with her when I spent the night at her house for this project. We drove all over Holland to measure the things in the sky. We have had some great conversations over the years!

I treasure these women with all my heart. They are women of faith. I admire who they have become since we first met.

Zephaniah 3:17 is a verse that we often share with each other during the good and the bad times. We found it during our Bible study. It has become one of my favorite Bible verses--not only because it is the Word, but also because it reminds me of how much God has blessed me through life with these incredible women.

"The LORD your God is with you, He is mighty to save.

He will take great delight in you, He will quiet you with his love,

He will rejoice over you with singing."

To end here are some pictures of us through the years (they are in no particular order):

Aren, Me, Mungo, Mel, Meerlings, Dustin, G, and Joel playing dress up and no this wasn't Halloween.
Meerlings playing Apples to Apples
Mungo and Me.
Girl's Weekend in Chicago. (Meerlings, Beth, Erin, Mungo, Me, and Mel)
Girl's weekend in Chicago (Meerlings, Erin, Mungo, and Beth)
A fuzzy but fun picture of Beth and I.
My dutch dance partner, G, and I smelling the tulips.
Girl's Weekend in Baltimore (Erin, G, Mel, Mungo, Me and Meerlings)
Mel, Meerlings, and G. A fun picture of me, Meerlings, Mungo and Dustin. (We have this framed.)

Croquet. (Me, Meerlings, Mel, G, and Erin.)

I could say so much more about each of you and how you enriched my life, but this post is long enough. I love you girls! I wouldn't know what to do without you!