Dear Keira (The Power of Friends)

Dear Keira,
Last night we went to Auntie Kerrie's house for a much overdue girls night. Auntie Meire was there and Auntie Victoria, and later Auntie Kerrie's friend Amanda joined us too. My sweet Keira, my prayer and deepest wishes for you include friends as amazing as mine. I know you will have many people come into your life. There will be friends that will help you through difficult times, there will be friends that are so much fun to be around and make you laugh, there will be friends you make because they are at the same point in life and going through the same things as you. My wish baby girl, is that you find friends, or even just a friend that is a forever friend. I want you to have the bond of friendship that is so deep and so thick that it can carry you through whatever life throws at it. I vow to you to help you always nurture and respect those friendships. There is more power and strength in a woman's bond with those special friendships than I could put into words. Those friends will know you in a way others won't. I know the term soul mate is given in the context of love and finding a partner, but I believe your soul also has counterparts in friendship as well. Why else do we bond so closely with some friends and not others? Why couldn't the answer simply be somehow our souls already knew each other? Last night while you were sleeping like a little angel on Auntie Kerrie's couch, wrapped in her red blanket, your aunties (and I use that term because they are our family) and I laughed, and cried, and caught up. In the midst of all this is when I started to think about you, and yearn for this in your life. I want you to have the kind of friendships that are selfless. I want you to have friendships where you can speak your minds, and give advice (advice that is given even when it's tough), and genuinely trust each others insight. I want you to have memories that you can spend an entire night retelling and laughing all over again. I want you to go through life with these friends, experiencing all the highs and lows together. I want them to be your children's aunties one day, and you their children's auntie. Keira, friendships like that are to be cherished. I can not wait to meet your forever friends. They will be surrogate daughters to me, and I will love them for loving you.
Love,
Mama