First Jennifer - This is a name that makes me think of someone who will be a friend for life. Yes, it's true, at least in my world....Jennifer's who come into my life tend to be friends for life. Our Jennifer is named after my dear friend whom I met when I moved to Michigan, when I was in third grade, and to this day we are still friends (through all of her moves across the country) and can at any moment pick up the phone and be there for each other or just catch up like we talked yesterday, even though it might have been a while since our last conversation. God has been good to us!
Jennifer and her namesake Jennifer.
However, I must give a shout out to two other Jennifer's in my life who are also friends through the years. The first is my friend Jennifer who I lived next door to from the time I was a baby in New Jersey. I like to say that we lived between our two houses and we had two moms at that point in our lives (which can be good and bad). Jennifer and I attended school together, played together, had sleepovers, and enjoyed having a best friend who lived next door. It was sad to leave such a good friend when we left New Jersey (and who would have known that my next close friend would also be named Jennifer). To this day our moms are great at keeping in touch and recently I was able to visit with Jen when I was in Philly and catch up. Crazy that 30 plus years later I sat in a room with Jen and stayed up until the wee hours of the morning talking and feeling the same bond we had so many years ago!
My other friend Jennifer (otherwise known as Jenn - yes, with two n's) is someone who I was neighbors with when I moved back to Kentwood. We loved being neighbors and had no idea how good we had it until she and her husband moved out of state (all for good reason, but sad none the less). At the start of our friendship we had no idea just how much we would have in common in life! We are now both mother's of twin boys (although, Jenn's twin boys have a triplet sister, so she has me beat in the craziness factor of life) and catch up when we can. I am thankful that her job and life bring her back to Michigan often so we can visit.
Tigist...well, Ethiopian of course! Blake and I felt very strongly that we wanted to tie our amazing family together with all of the rich culture and we stared with names. The busters of course have beautiful Ethiopian middle names given by their Ethiopian mom and we love Ethiopian names, so it was an easy choice when choosing a middle name. And Tigist isn't just a favorite Ethiopian name, but named after our first Ethiopian girl love Tigist Y whom we met when we went to pick up the boys in Ethiopia. It was love at first sight when we met Tigist Y. She is part of an organization (Children's Heaven), run by a good Ethiopian friend of ours, that works to keep at risk girls off the streets and out of prostitution in Ethiopia. It also allows the girls to get one good meal a day and the school support to keep them learning and focused on careers for the future. We sponsor Tigist to make sure she can continue to receive a quality education, food, and basic needs to keep her on the track to a bright future. It's an amazing program and one we can't speak highly enough of! And from day one the busters have called Tigist Y. their Ethiopian sister - and we mean it! It's just so hard living on the other side of an ocean and not being able to see her ever day, but we pray for her and let her know just how much we love her.
So, that's the story of Jennifer Tigist's name...lots of special people and meanings behind such a little girl!
Our beautiful Tigist on the other side of the world.
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