My best friend Jill and I don't mince words about anything - work, religion, family, politics, guys - we always know where the other stands on everything.  We have been though a lot together and I'm certain nothing will come between us because we are always honest with each other.  Jill tells me when she doesn't like a guy I've dated.  I tell Jill when I don't like the outfit she has on.  Jill tells me when I need to stand up for myself at work.  I tell Jill she can call me anytime, even in the middle of the night.  The photo of us is from a night we went to dinner with friends.  Jill rarely wears make-up and I always do, so we had to have proof that she was actually wearing make-up and I had on very little.  We laughed so hard about that night because we had switched places with our make-up routine without even knowing it.  The best part was that we could point it out to each other without worrying that we were insulting each other.  Jill and I have been able to laugh at ourselves together for years, and I know there will be many more years of that to come.

Beth and I have been best friends from my first year of college.  Beth (on the left without glasses) is an awesome person with an analytical personality.  I (Steph, on the right with glasses) tend to believe everything that everyone says.  Together, we are unstopable.  We have been through many rough times and some really awesome times also.  We both worked abroad after completing graduate school (different institutions, but we both helped one another with our homework!) and we had our "oh crap what are we going to do now" moment.  There is no nonsese between us because we have grown into mature adults TOGETHER.  We have experienced different cultures and supported one another through it all.  Boyfriends, marriages, husbands, countries, universities, jobs, love, hate, denial, death, depression, family issues and more.  Now that we are both "mature adults" we never found the time (or moneY!) to go to New York City together--hopefully this is our chance!

My 'Between Friends' Story, begins in the 7th grade...  I met my best friend Christie.  We were & still are inseparable.  Everything that she goes through, I go through.  We have so many great memorys between us, as well as a lot of things that only her and I know about eachother.   We now both have kids & still enjoy great times together. 

Pamela and I have been friends some 20 odd years. There is no nonsense between us because we each other's biggest cheerleader, but we have also made a committment to be accoutable to each other. Neither of us gets by with anything; we praise each other for the positive and chasten each other for the negative, using God's word as our measuring stick.

Lindsey and I met 11 years ago, shortly after high school graduation.  We were from different towns, had different upbringings and seemed to be going in different directions...but from the moment we met, we knew something was different about this friendship.  We spent the first two years of our friendship two hours apart and relying on weekly letters to catch up until the weekend...almost every weekend...visit.  After two years she moved to Birmingham to continue her education and we finished college together.  Our husbands are best friends as are the four children between us...both of us have two girls.  Our friendship has traveled paths that many friendships might not survive, but we've remained strong.  We see each others potential and we encourage.  We see our struggles and we spur each other on.  We see opportunities and we know that we don't have to 'jump' alone.  We love doing life together and we are stronger together than apart.  We are best friends and nothing can come between us. 

It has been 23 years since I first met my best friend, Sara Jane Patterson Stanley. It was her mother Sallie that introduced us to each other at a church youth group function. Sara knew most of the kids their as she had been living in the community for quite some time. I however had just moved there and being that I was 13, it was a very difficult time for me to have to make new friends. Sara welcomed me into her life with open arms. We were inseperable all throughout our teen years, often times wearing each others clothes, sharing our different colored converse high tops, she would wear one pink one and one black one, and I would do the same thing. We did everything together and it didn't take long for our moms to become best friends also. When I was 20, my mother became very ill with toxic shock syndrom. She went into a serious coma after having several strokes and the doctors were not confident that she would live. Sara and her family were there for me everyday and night. They even accepted me into their home when I had to move mine and my mothers things from our apartment because we had no way to afford it any longer due to my mothers illness and being out of work for so long. They gave me unconditional love and support as well as provided a place for my mom to live during her rehabilitation. Since those years both Sara and I have married, had children, divorced and remarried to two wonderful men. We have supported each other through all of the difficult times as well as given each other advice and a good loving shoulder to cry on when things were very hard. This past May I remarried and knowing how much Sara means to me, and that she would not be able to afford a flight from Hawaii to Santa Barbara, my husband purchased her a ticket to come to our wedding. That gift made me cry in happiness for a long time.  I love my best friend. We will be best friends forever.

My no nonsense pal is not only a friend, she's my sister!  Born only 18 months apart we grew up involved in so many of the same activities  and sharing everything that for a while back in high school I think we were ready to get away from each other. However, once that actually happened we realized what our friendship really meant.  NOBODY knows you like your sister and that bond is the greatest gift a girl could ask for. 

My best friend IS my best friend simply because there IS nonsense between us. We've known each other for five years like of the back of our own hands. I'm the one peeking from the bushes in the photo, making an attempt to ruin the portrait. Nonsense is what we're all about and that makes everything twice as fun; not only is that a candid photo but also one that captures the moment. It's earned a place in our silly friendship. :) Friendship doesn't have to be cleared of nonsense. Being able to enjoy nonsense like this is the essence of it.

I've known Sarah since I was a little girl. We've been through middle school, high school, and college together. We had fights, our first love, breakups, and through it all we had each other's backs. I don't know what kind of person I would've been without her!

My best friend Kat and I have been friends since first grade.  Thats  14 years of friendship! And believe it or not, but we have NEVER EVER had a fight. Sure we've had disagreements, but never to the point where we weren't speaking to each other. We think that is just ridiculous.  We think friendship is an opportunity to share your life with another person and let each others souls become one and thats exactly what we have done.14 years down, 80 to go.