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When I first met Kristi I will admit she was a bit of a mystery to me – this stay at home mom with a cute toddler. My boyfriend(now husband) and I would go for motorcycle rides with a guy we met through a local motorcycle meet-up. He had a wife and a toddler at home who I never really got to know..except from a quick ride by and a wave. We would chat occasionally. I found out that she had a very successful career in the corporate world but quit it all to stay home with their son. (I admit I didn’t get that). I wasn’t a huge fan of kids at the time but I remember meeting Charlie and saying “if I ever have a child I want them to be exactly like him!”
Soon I found myself moving to Europe. During this time Jed stayed behind and I believe found himself at Kristi’s doorstep nearly nightly at their dinnertime. Ironic, no? 
Anyway, when I moved back from Europe – all eight months pregnant of me – I found myself feeling like Kristi was an old friend that I had known forever from the stories I had been told over the past two years. And not knowing what a baby needed or what to buy or where to buy…Kristi took me under her wing to get me properly set-up for motherhood.
Kristi was one of my first visitors in the hospital after Eloise was born. Her little 5 year old Charlie hid behind her maybe a bit overwhelmed with this tiny baby, new mother, and hospital smells and sounds. And for the next four months of my maternity leave the four of us(Kristi, Charlie, me and Eloise) would have outings to the zoo and the mall and the museums and out for lunch. I had never been so enamored with a five year old boy but I completely fell in love with his mom.
And when I quit my job to be a stay at home mom just two years later I ‘got’ what Kristi found so beautiful about this life. I will never be able to completely thank her for that.
May I tell you how lucky I am to have a friend like Kristi? I feel there are truly no words to describe her. Besides my mother she is the first person I call with good news, bad news, advice, love, or just to hear her voice(even though she mainly keeps her phone off because she has a healthy balance that way).
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