Simply Amazing.

I recently got the news that 3 of my childhood friends are going to be coming from Sweden to Iowa for my October wedding.
This. Is. Huge. Thinking of them to be willing to travel so far, and spend SO much money doing so to be there on my wedding day is enough to bring me to tears. I seriously Can't get over it.

The four of us became BFFs when we were 4-5. Two of us at first, then the other two moved to the neighborhood and my kindergarten we were inseparable. Two of them lived next door to each other, the other girl lived behind them and I was across the street. We did EVERYTHING together. Rode our bikes pretending they were horses, walked the 3-4 miles through the woods (while picking wild Swedish blueberries and raspberries) to go to the horse stable where Kerstin and her sister had a horse (keep in mind this is Sweden and we could NOT have been safer growing up there) playing dress up with our moms close, playing my little ponies, having sleep overs where of we didn't sleep at all, playing chef in my kitchen where we would mix a bunch of random ingredients and the others would have to 'guess that's for lunch', thinking we were grown ups and sitting around sipping hot tea. That was my childhood in Sweden and I seriously think I had THE best childhood that anyone could possibly have.

When my family announced when I was 11-12 that we were moving to America I was devastated. I thought my life was over. I had had the 3 best friends I could ever imagine living next door for 6 years and the thought of leaving was unbearable. I pleaded, I bargained, I threatened and sulked, but I didn't get my way. We moved to America anyway. For years these girls would get together on my birthday and call me, we sent letters, pictures and postcards- but gradually it stopped. I still thought about these girls all the time, but I had built my own life here in the states. I never stopped wondering about them, wondered what kind of girls they became, if they were friends, if Jessica- who had major health issues- was alright.

Almost three years ago one of them (Kerstin) found me on facebook. And through her I found the other two. We sent each other long messages trying to catch up over the last 10 + years. Kerstin had moved away with her family and hadn't seen/talked to the other two girls in years, and Sofie and Jessica were still the best of friends, even though Jessica had moved 3 hours south for school.

And then we got the news we had been accepted to study abroad in Sweden. It was a dream come true. Over the 6 months we were there Sofie and her fiance came to visit us in Karlstad (7 hrs away from where they lived) we went up to visit them twice, we rented a cabin in the middle of Sweden and spend the weekend with them there, Kerstin came to visit us the last weekend we were there, and two whole weekends we all met in Stockholm, all four of us, to be together. It was seriously surreal and two of the best weekends of my life.

Then in April Sofie and her fiance came to visit us for three weeks here in Colorado. It was amazing for our fiances to become such good friends and I cant wait for them to have kids so our kids can grow up being friends- even thought they live thousands of miles away from eachother.

And now- 12 years after I moved away these three girls are coming across the ocean to be there for me on my wedding day. Does it get any more amazing then that?

Here's an old picture I found of I think 2nd grade- I'm in the front left corner (sitting next to my first boyfriend whose brother was MY brothers BFF and is coming to visit in a couple of weeks!!) Jessica is the girl in the white shirt and glasses, behind her is Sofie and the girl in the back row with the hat is Kerstin. And the boy with the crazy pants in the front row is Sofie's twin!

And here are also some pictures of us all grown up!

p.s if you are wondering why none of my three friend fit the 'blonde beautiful' stereotype its because two out of the three have white blonde hair but dye it dark for some crazy reason (one is a hair dresser) but I they are all three extremely beautiful.