Valued | Amy

It dawned on me the other day that January brought with it an anniversary of sorts. I could feel it...and I knew it was important to me...but I couldn't pin-point exactly what was stirring up these celebratory feelings. I started flipping through my planners from last year, became temporarily side-tracked as all my little hand-written notes took me backwards through days and months and the things that make up a life, and then I found it:

 Saturday, January 19, 2013
"9:00 a.m. - Java w/Amy"

That is the when & where of the beginning of an incredible gift that has been given to me, one day at a time.

But it's not THE beginning.

Before I explain further, please allow me to introduce my sweet Amy Schutte:

Church youth group and a large gorge in Washington allowed our lives to bump gently into each other. Until I decided my boyfriend was laughing a little too hard at her jokes. And so, like the mature woman I was at the age of 17, I made a conscious effort to dislike Amy. (And that particular boyfriend.)

Time whisked us both away to different experiences so we could become the women we are today. But what I love most about this story is that we now get to be those women...together.

There is something, or maybe 1 million somethings, about Amy that draws you to her. You may not notice it but all of a sudden, there you are, near her, or wishing you could be. The obvious assumption would be her beauty. She is radiant and powerful and smart and feminine and sexy and funny. All of those things all of the time.

She is an anomaly. Or maybe an alien. I love her regardless.

A shared interest in photography was all it took to prompt our morning Java date. And then I knew I was so thankful to have a chance to get to know this girl who had been in and around my life for years, but not yet a part of it.

We soon discovered many other common interests. We have independent & wild spirits trapped in our small-town selves, but we like it here, too. We have fears & insecurities that maybe we just don't want to talk about right now...but if we do, we're making them into a joke because it's easier to deal with that way. Our borderline-obsessive love of Sun Valley in the fall. And an incurable disease some refer to as wanderlust. But one of my favorite aspects of our friendship are the places in which we are opposite and yet still complementary.

Amy's strength & determination has blown my head back more than once. This woman will succeed at whatever she puts her mind to. And what I have been so blessed to see that applied to has been her love for her husband and her role as a bonus mom to her husband's two children. She alone has reignited my faith in what a marriage can be...not just what it should be. Commitment, yes, of course. You don't hear too many people celebrating 30-, 40-, 50-year anniversaries these days. But beyond the commitment...beyond the resignation...beyond the bad marriage jokes, is a fire and a passion and the decision to love someone else to the point of bursting. And it takes 2 seconds to see that between she & Ryan. And I am so thankful to have that in my life. To be able to breathe it in, to see & feel its effects, and to learn from it. That same decision to love is applied to Avery & Mason - the "littles" of Team Schutte. She has made the choice to step in and share herself with them - the best, the good enough, and the hard days - and to show them that it's ok, it's ok to feel however you feel but try to learn from it, and that no matter what - LOVE WINS.
 

 
I know they probably don't grasp the significance of the presence of this amazing woman in their lives right now, but I am predicting some very soggy wedding speeches down the road because of the impact she made.

Amy's brilliant mind & radiant heart are so incredibly valuable to me. This was solidified for me when I went through a tough time this last summer. Her head & her heart are woven together so beautifully that I remember being distracted by it. Every word she said passed through her heart first - no judgment, no cliches, no sugar-coating or condemning...she just let me be. Because feelings are valid simply because they exist. She allowed me to feel however I needed while letting me know that I was still valuable & loved. And that, when she got home from Kentucky, we were going to put on our big hats and allow the sun to penetrate our very bones, because what problem wouldn't that solve?? And now, I am half a year away from that hard time, but immeasurably closer to her.

And I am just left feeling grateful for being given treasured pieces of her - her words, her cheerleading, her perspective, her time.

Amy, on your best days & your bag-over-your-head-in-the-closet days, know that each & every part of what makes you, you, is so, so valuable to me. Thankful for you & loving you a weird amount (and a little more) every day...