What a week!

Just got home from meeting the most beautiful baby that didn’t come out of me. Did I ever need to be surrounded by the relaxed, unconditional love that is the Core.

The Core is five of us lovely ladies that have been best friends since elementary school. We call ourselves “the Core” because we are all very different and we’ve all branched off and made friends with similar interests at various times, but when it comes right down to it, the five of us are at the Core of it all. We will always be friends and always come back to each other.  And even though we’ve spread ourselves across the globe—one of us now calls the Cayman Islands home—and chosen markedly different paths in life, it is so comforting to know that when we do get together, everything is just as it’s always been.

Four of us have kids of our own now, the latest addition to the Baby Core having the courteousy to be born on one of her surrogate aunties’ birthdays yesterday. I am so excited to watch our babies grow up together and so thankful to have such kind and funny people in my life that can pull me out of any funk I stumble into.

And that is the key right there: we have been through some intense and stupid stuff in our 20+ years of friendship, but we always, always, always know when to let stuff go and smile and laugh again. I love my girls like family, even though I don’t talk to them every day or even every month. There are no secret grudges or imaginary plots (well, maybe some, but we drink those puppies away). We understand that life is busy and it often gets in the way of communication, but that doesn’t mean we won’t be there in an instant when we’re really needed.

The Core makes all the bull-shit seem even more bull-shittier, but also funnier and less consequential in the long run. I have the love of an amazing man who is my family, my life. I have three super-incredible babies who make every second of my day make sense. I have caring and supportive parents who will never judge me no matter how clueless I can be at times. And I have friends: plenty of fabulous, amazing, gorgeous friends who are marrying and procreating at an alarming rate and will keep my heart busy and happy for the rest of my life.

Things are good. I can breathe again now.