Photo caption: Karen & Lisa, Confirmation ski trip.
Lisa Osadchuk and I met the first day of 7th grade. We were waiting outside the front doors of Mac HI, our middle school, with most of our new classmates of all grades. For most of us, it was the first school where we didn't know many people, because most of us hadn't changed schools in elementary school. The only people I knew at Mac were the people I'd gone to elementary school with, one girl from church, and a guy I'd just met at the bus stop that morning (who would become my other best friend that year). I was reading, leaning up against the wall, when this short, dark-haired girl comes up to me, sticks her hand straight out to shake hands, and says, "Hi! I'm Lisa!" From then on, we were close friends. We had a couple of classes together every year through the end of high school and helped each other through some of the roughest times in our lives. We started a lunch "club" for those who didn't belong in other groups (cliques) in school and so had no one to eat lunch with. Everyone was welcome to sit at our section of the lunch tables. For that time, at least, none of us were bullied, and if we were the others stood up for us.
After we graduated from high school, we kind of dropped contact because we were busy with college and finding our new roles in life. Lisa dropped out of school because she had a brain tumor that was discovered soon after she started college. She was able to get it successfully removed, but has sustained health problems from the damage, from other health things, and always the threat of cancer returning. She is now back in college, has graduated, and is on her way to an advanced degree! After I graduated from college, got married, and moved back to Vancouver, I tried to find her on Facebook. We got back into contact and have been friends again ever since. She and her service dog came to my mom's funeral in 2014, and that was the first time I'd actually seen her since high school. We've gotten together a few times since then, but mostly keep up our friendship through FB. I love seeing pictures of her adventures (going to Hawaii, speaking at conferences about inclusion and sports medicine, competing with her dog in tracking competitions) and pray during the times that she's in the hospital, struggles with mental illness, the cancer scares, etc. I'm so blessed to have her in my life!
I used the challenge mini kit from Jumpstart Designs. The font is "Christina."
