My Friends Are My FAMILY

  As most people know, I grew up in Plano, TX.  It was a great place to grow up-wonderful schools, great athletic programs, and the BIGGEST plus of them all...AMAZING shopping!  I absolutely LOVED it there.  If I ever had to move back, I wouldn't be upset ! ;)  However, there were some downsides; the biggest one being that we were so far away from family.  Most of our family lived in New York, New Jersey, Virginia and South Carolina.  For the most part, we were the ones who would make the trip to the east coast to visit family.  Occasionally, family would visit us, but never for the holidays.

   Luckily, we had really good friends - the Laughlins.  Craig and Vicki were great friends with my parents.  My sister and I were very good friends with their daughters, Katie and Sarah.  We spent Christmas with them almost every year; they were like family to us!  I still remember this like it was yesterday; Christmas of 2001 my mom decided to tell the Laughlins that we would be moving to Charleston, SC that summer.  Of all times to give this kind of news and she had to pick Christmas!!!  Was she crazy?!?!?!  Needless to say, that Christmas was not the happiest.  So summer of 2002 we said goodbye to our dearest of friends. 

Craig, Vicki, and Katie

 
   We've stayed connected through Facebook, email and a couple of visits back to Texas.  My dad probably see's the Laughlins the most since he often travels back to Dallas for business.  We invited them to my wedding and I assumed that they wouldn't be able to come because of the distance BUT they came!  (except for Sarah - she had a college soccer tournament - we sure did miss you!)  Don't get me wrong, I was so excited to see everyone that came to our wedding, but I was beyond elated when I saw the Laughlins.  They kept telling me that they wouldn't have missed it for the world.  Friday night when I saw them for the first time at the rehearsal dinner I was so happy!  I had to excuse myself to the bathroom to let out a few tears (tears of joy, of course), I just couldn't believe they were here!  It was so good to see them, just like old times.  We (Craig, Vicki, Mom, Allie and me) even danced to our favorite song from back in the day, "500 Miles" by The Proclaimers at the wedding! 

  The Laughlins are a part of our family and will always be.  They are one of the kindest, most loving families we know and I am so thankful that we met them in Plano.  Thank you for making my wedding day so special!