Why yes, I am rich!

Don't you hate it when you hear people say:

• "Oh they got some money." 
• "Did you see what they bought they must be rich?"
• "Look at the house they live in."
• "Did you see that car they just bought?"

Drives me crazy because most don't have a clue!  Well, I am richer than I ever imagined I could be.  Sometimes I feel like I have more wealth than should be allowed.  How did this small town girl from Kentucky become so blessed to have all that I have?  What makes me so special?   Maybe it is how I measure my richness...

Aww, so that is why I feel so rich! 

I think I won my first lottery back in 1983 on a bus to Camp Linden.  I was a shy, scared and very nervous little girl headed off to camp for the first time ever and feeling like it was going to be awful.  Little did I know I would met two of my 3 life long best friends on that bus.  Kristie Leigh and Crazy Tracy became instant buddies of mine and we had one amazing week at Camp Linden.  Kristie and I even got to go back as camp counselors when we were 17-18.  What fun we had reliving the memories!  Here we are in 2013 and those two amazing girls are still my closest friends and true gifts from God!  We were blessed to add Brandi to the group a couple years later and the 4 of us have been making memories ever since.  Helen Keller once said "so long as the memory of beloved friends lives in my heart, I shall say that life is good".  So very true!

In February of 1995 a certain boy literally walked into my life and I have been getting richer daily since then! I was lucky enough to fall in love with an amazing Christian man who not only is my husband, but my best friend and father to our boys.  I can't begin to tell you how blessed I am that he is mine and I am his.  It's hard for me to even begin to describe what we have because it is just so spectacular!

Next came my two boys!  There is nothing greater than being the mother of boys!  If anyone was meant to have boys it was me and they have made me rich beyond my wildest dreams.  Carrying them in my stomach and feeling them grow was amazing, but having them here with me and seeing them grow up each day is indescribable.  There is not greater joy than being their mom.

I wish I had the time to write about each and every person that has made me rich--I would have to go back to the beginning with my family and the many awesome friends I have made through my life.  People who have touched me in one way or another.  You know those people that can do something so small, but it be just exactly what you need and you never forget them.  My 5th grade teacher Mrs. McNeely was one of those people and there was a bible study leader at Centrifuge.  I can see her face and remember how she touched my heart to this very day.  I have a few sorority sisters that will always hold a place in my heart.  I remember the first time I met 4 year old Shelby and the way she looked up at me with those big hazel eyes.  I loved that girl instantly and always keep her in my heart.  Little Catherine stole my heart when she was just 3 or 4 years old at VBS one summer!  Every summer she came to visit her Nana.  I remember swimming around the pool with her and one of our last summers together I was her camp counselor.  I left for college and didn't make it home as much, but she is one you could never forget!

So yeah, I am rich beyond my wildest dreams because it is the heart that makes a person rich and my heart is so full!    You may measure richness by material things, but they are just things that will never make your heart full...