Best friends

In August, Graham and Annie's best friends Billy & Katharina Hirschi moved with their mom Jen to the Bronx where Jen is working on a post-doc in Chemistry.

I knew it was going to be a loss to the kids, because all of four of them just loved playing together. Billy & Katharina were church friends and St. Thomas friends, so the four kiddos got to see each other all the time ... and that still wasn't enough on some days.

Since school started, I actually haven't heard too many complaints about missing Billy and Katharina, and I was glad that Graham and Annie were being resilient, but their friends in "Yew Nork" (as Annie says) were not forgotten!

On Oct. 12th, the four children were reunited, since Jen had some business that brought her back to TAMU. Graham woke up the morning of the meeting and told me, "I had a dream last night that I got to see Billy again, and I ran to him and hugged him and said 'I MISSED you!'"
That very afternoon, Billy, Katharina, Annie and I picked up Graham from school, and the two boys did embrace. Graham said, enthusiastically, "Billy is better than gold."

Since Billy turned eight that very week, we did a little celebrating. Even Graham could have some cake (with the frosting scraped off). You may be wondering why both boys have shirts off in October? Well, it was hot and humid until, well, until about six hours ago :)

We had a great week with the Hirschis, including a couple of sleepovers at our house, a trip to Mr. Gatti's, a playdate at Tanglewood Park and a performance of Junie B. Jones, the musical, through TAMU's OPAS jr. (I can't stop humming "Top Secret Personal Beeswax", the signature tune of the show).

Graham says he would like to be a mission companion to Truman Renfroe and Billy Hirschi, his far-flung friends.

For now, he has his dreams and our digital photos. Annie, meanwhile, is busy writing letters to Katharina.