Birthday Hugs

Happy Birthday Anne Ahrens!

Today is my friend, Anne's, birthday. I met Anne at my church, Quest United Methodist. She actually helped lead an Alpha class I took when I first started attending Quest, and that discussion group eventually evolved into our small group. She and her husband, broke off from our group awhile back to start a new group. I miss Anne, but I know they were being called to spread God's word to others.

Anne is like no other person I have ever met. I think she approaches life with a great combination of childlike delight and sage wisdom. Some of my most favorite conversations have been with Anne. She has such a strong faith, and she has encouraged me in my walk with God, and we have had some great conversations about that. However, at the same time we have had some completely ridiculous conversations too about such topics as McDonalds, hugging, bowel movements, and the inability to stop singing "Good Morning Baltimore" for days after seeing Hairspray (both the movie and musical).

I have Anne to thank for introducing me to High School Musical. I have lots of 7-year old girlfriends and now I have one more thing to talk to them about. When I was sporting a cast last spring and unable to drive, Anne came over to my house one night and made me dinner. It was awesome, I think it was chicken strips and mac & cheese... very simple but something I could not do for myself.

The title of this post refers to Anne's hugging issues. A couple of years ago she decided that she was going to make a point to hug more often in an effort to become more comfortable with random hugging. She even made a t-shirt to that effect... I think it said something like "Arms are for Hugging".

Happy Birthday Anne! I hope you have a great day filled with lots of hugs.