The Present from Troy

I have 18 best friends. Yes. 18 of them.

And you know what? I have never met any of them face to face.

Sound weird huh?  To any normal person it would.... but we don't really mind what other people think. We bonded over a website called Baby Gaga. We were pregnant and going through so many changes that we needed to talk to someone.. enter Baby Gaga...  we were all due in July. Some of us met before our babies were due.. most of met after they were here. 

Either way, what a refreshment it was to know that I had other people to talk to about the many changes going on my life. As a first time mother, I didn't know what I was doing half the time. With the advice of other mothers going through the same exact thing made it easier. 

When it was a bad day.. they walked me through it.  When it was a good day... they cheered with me. When I couldn't get Joshua to take a nap.. they sympathized. We are able to talk about things with each other that we would never tell anyone else.. and without judgement. Decisions are supported, no matter if we don't share the same opinion. Respect is what we have for each other no matter what we are going through.

We formed a bond. A bond that can never be broken. A bond that hopefully we will pass onto our children.

So when our special month of July comes around every year, our babies names get put into a hat...shaken.. and pulled. We are each assigned a child to purchase a gift for. This year Joshua was assigned to Troy.

We of course love our Aunt Jen and Troy, they are our Texas family from New York.  .. haha... Jen does live in New York, but has family in Texas, so of course, I am always trying to get her to move here.

Joshua was so excited though and from the day I told him that Troy was sending him a present in the mail, we had to check the mail box every morning before school and every afternoon when we he got home from school.

When the box finally arrived, he was so excited!!

I wish I would have gotten this on video.. but his reaction was...

"Oh My Gosh!! Oh My Gosh!! What is it?".... he was excited even though he wasn't sure what he was excited about.

When he finally opened it and saw it was a box full of tools, he was super excited! He got right to work fixing all kinds of things in the house. According to Joshua, our walls needed to be repaired, the TV cabinet was falling apart, and that cardboard box needed the most work.. it was 'just broken'.

But wait.. there was something else in the box... a shirt. 

"I love it Mom!!" he exclaimed before even looking at it.

"It's my name! That's Joshua's name!"



                         


Jen and Troy could not have picked a more perfect gift for Joshua and we love them dearly for what they did for him.

They... along with my 17 other best friends will always hold a special place in our hearts.

Love you July Mamas!

Love you July Babies!