When Great Friends Move Away



This month, I said goodbye-for-now to some of our best church friends. This sweet photo is of our small group at its last meeting (with this exact batch of friends), as one couple moved to Chicago and now another couple moves to West Virginia. Before each couple left, we had a farewell dinner...the first was a backyard bonfire event and the second was more a casual spaghetti dinner party feel. (We used real plates. None of the placemats matched. You get the idea.)

I really dreaded having to say goodbye to such dear, dear friends. Instead of focus on the fact that I won't be able to grab coffee and discuss all things blog, church, Christ, and married life related in person with these folks, I'm deciding to get excited about the visits we'll have and the stories we'll hear about living in another state.

//              //               //               //               //               // 

One of the friends moving away is my partner in crime, Courtney, who founded Wild Cedar Co. with me (read how we started it here). Now that she'll be 8+ hours away, I won't be sneakily dropping off blank signs for her to letter at the crack of dawn while praying I don't wake up her dog and thus wake up them, too. (I didn't always do such weirdo early morning sign drop-offs. Sometimes I left them by her car in the church parking lot on a Sunday. 😉 )

What this means for our small business is that we're going to get creative with the design side of things. She's still the expert hand-letter, so we're going to start offering digital prints, real prints, and standardized sign designs! We've done a bunch of custom orders, which we'll continue to offer, as well, with a 2-3 week delay after the order request has been submitted. (P.S. We're currently celebrating our shop's anniversary with a giveaway on Instagram!) 

 //              //              //              //              //              //              

Though saying goodbye to friends is hard, I'd much rather have to part than have never met these honest, fun people who have challenged me to be more like Christ and offered me such sweet friendship. Sure, goodbyes are difficult, but it represents the fact that we've gotten to be such great friends and have invested in each others' lives.

Based on how Chelsea and Beth talk about visiting far-off friends, I'm positive we'll still do yearly vacations and stuff together. I'm choosing to look forward to vacations where we stay up til midnight discussing politics, current trends, Devin's future "scent" business (not "fragrances," he says), what we were like in high school, and everything in between...though maybe those late-night talks will be in a shared mountain cabin instead of our living room 😉 


No comments