Arian

I have a great video for you to watch but first I have to tell you about my friend, Arian. She and her husband were stationed in Italy when we arrived there, a little over eight years ago. I truly believe that people are put in our lives at certain times for a reason and this was definitely one of those times. There was an instant connection with Arian and she was an amazing friend during a time when I really needed one. Most of my pictures from that time are hard copy but I was able to find a few that we had scanned.

Here we are with her wiggly little boy.Moving overseas is a stressful experience and we were grateful for some immediate friends to help us settle in. Our husbands got along well also and so we did a lot of hanging out. I think from almost our first week there we would get together on Friday nights with take-out Italian Pizza (Mach Pizza!) and watch Survivor. There was very limited American television overseas and this was a fun tradition. We also went on several travel excursions with them--wish I had some of those pictures scanned--fun times!

Another key part of this relationship was Arian's little boy. The month before we moved to Italy we had the heart breaking experience of losing our own little boy who was born prematurely and lived for only a few minutes. Arian's baby was just a few weeks old when we arrived in Italy and he became a part of my healing. I would go to Arian's house and hold him in the rocking chair while she got some things done. I think she felt like I was doing her a favor but I was so grateful to have my arms filled for a little while and ease some of the emptiness I was feeling. I had this overwhelming need to mother and holding her baby helped satisfy that for a few moments.

This little guy will always have a special place in my heart. Ben gets in some snuggle time as well. We were both so grateful for the friendship of this family.They moved away to another European assignment shortly after Katie was born but we were able to meet up with them again before we headed back to the states. We love you guys! So anyway, that is my amazing friend, Arian.

Besides being such a good friend she is an incredibly talented musician. That brings us to the video I want you to watch. She just posted a new single on the violin of the National Anthem, here. I'm not embedding it because all my YouTube videos get chopped off and I want you to enjoy the real deal. In addition to this single, she has a CD available which you can find info about on her blog, here.

(for those that might be interested: you can see the back of Katie's head in the last picture of the video)