"You Find Out Who Your Friends Are"

Andrew likes to laugh at me for loving country music. So lately he's been laughing a lot because country is practically all that's been on my radio or coming out of my iPad on Pandora. I like country because of the twang in the artists' voices, but I also like it because they sing with a certain degree of truth that other genres of music don't always capture. The songs tell stories, instead of repeating the same meaningless lines ad nauseum. Okay, maybe not all of them. "Red Solo Cup" is certainly an exception. You really gotta check that winner out. But, I'd choose a good Zac Brown tune almost any day over Lady Gaga singing about her "p-p-p-poker face (mum mum mum mah)" or Justin Bieber pouring out his 18-year-old heart to his "like baby, baby, baby, oh". Seriously, people? I could write better lyrics than that (and so could my four-year-old nephew).

Sorry; the original point of this post actually wasn't to try to convince you to change your radio station. This song by Tracy Lawrence came on the radio earlier in the week, and although the music isn't my absolute favorite, the words have been bouncing around in my head for the past few days.

"Everybody wants to slap your back,
wants to shake your hand
when you're up on top of that mountain
But let one of those rocks give way then you slide back down,
look up and see who's around then.

This ain't where the road comes to an end,
This ain't where the bandwagon stops-
This is just one of those times when
A lot of folks jump off.

You find out who your friends are
Somebody's gonna drop everything
Run out and crank up their car
Hit the gas, get there fast
Never stop to think 'What's in it for me?' or 'It's way too far'
They just show on up with their big old heart
You find out who your friends are".

We have had a crazy and difficult week. Andrew was in the hospital on Monday for surgery. Don't worry and please don't ask questions; he's really fine. But I don't think I realized what an emotionally exhausting week this would be for me, and Andrew didn't anticipate the amount of pain and nausea that follows basically any kind of surgery.

Then on Friday, a tornado touched down about half a mile from our house. I was freaking out, naturally, while Andrew was standing in the front yard gazing up at the sky. I guess native Oklahomans have heard enough boys crying wolf about tornadoes to not take any weather reports seriously. Last night, though, there was actually reason to be concerned as trees were uprooted and roofs were torn from buildings. News reports stated that eleven people went to the hospital in Norman. Thankfully, everyone we know is completely fine.

I tell you about these two incidents because I think it's easy to forget how wonderful people are until things like this happen. Not a lot of people knew about Andrew's surgery, but everyone who did went over the top to make sure we were alright. We had more offers for meals than we possibly could have eaten in a few days. His buddies came to visit him during the day while I had to be at work. When the tornado came, so many people sent us text messages or called to check on our safety. I've been overwhelmed by the kindness of our friends and family this week, despite the fact that we haven't done anything to deserve it. Thanks, friends. We are truly blessed.