Ode to the Twin

You may not know this about me, but I have a twin.

Not a biological one, mind you- but a God-picked, awesome, amazing soul sister that He knew I needed more than any boy or any job that I could ever possibly think I would need.  This dear friend of mine came in a moment where I never expected, and influenced my life greater than I ever thought any person could.

Hannah and I met in college, the very first day of my very first college class, in the very first taste of what my future held: lots of signing.  As the semester progressed, we became fast friends- and soon we became labeled "the ASL twins" because everything from our personalities to our signing styles were almost exactly the same.  The similarities get downright scary sometimes, but the intensity of our friendship and our love for Christ is what has strengthened our relationship far past that of any other friendship or relationship I had shared with a person.  We know everything about each other, and even though we currently live 1000 miles away from each other, our friendship continues to flourish and grow as we mature into the women God has called us to be.  However, God blessed us this past weekend, because Momma Martha (aka Hannah's mom) decided to fly me out to visit Hannah in a much needed visit. 

The last time Hannah visited me was shortly after a huge monumental time in my life: I just broken up with the guy I had been dating for 2 years, but I was also at a turning point in my walk with Christ.  Now, my visit comes after another huge moment in my life: getting engaged to the man that God has handpicked to share the rest of my life with. A man that has been approved by all four of my wonderful parents, and also by twin.  And while in two days, I'll head back to the land of sunshine and sand- for tonight and the next couple days we will delight in the fact that for a very brief time we will laugh, chat, shop, share, and enjoy the limited time we have until she visits this summer for my wedding.

So I will leave you with just a few reasons why I call my dear soul sister my twin:

We both love kites.  We love watching Big Bang Theory.  We love the same diverse styles of music.  We both became fascinated by the color combination of purple, black, and gray at the same time.  We both had a Dalmatian about the same age in life.  Both of our men are pastors, who were once history majors.  We are both sign language interpreters.  We are the same shoe size.  At one point, we both had one niece and two nephews (not anymore because her brother had a baby- but still that's cool enough to qualify as twinness). We bought the same Easter dress this year, in the exact same color.  We both got the movie 101 Dalmatians for Easter 2008.  We use the same soap and face wash.  And we always know just what to say to each other when the other is down.