Forever friends

In 2016 we moved to Shanghai, my first experience living overseas. I had no idea what to expect – especially when it came to the people we were going to meet. Over our three years in China, we made friends in our apartment building, in our son’s school, in the expat association I joined, but most surprisingly because I posted on a local expat website that I was a new expat looking for mom friends. I literally posted to the entire world that I was desperate to make friends—and it worked!  😉

Some people we met were simply a season in our lives, and I was grateful for their friendship at the time. But some, amazingly, have become forever friends. My first friend in Shanghai was the first person I wanted to call when we heard that this job in Dublin was a reality. A friend that I didn’t know very well in Shanghai ended up living down the street from me in California, and my boys asked to play with her boys on a weekly basis. A close friend from Shanghai who lives on the other side of the world made time for me when she came to Dublin last month for work.

It’s so easy to say that you can’t make good friends when you’re older. Life is incredibly busy for all of us, especially when you have children in sports or activities. But when you are intentional with your time and make space in your life for someone, wonderful memories can be created.

This summer we’re reconnecting with our closest Shanghai friends at their home on the east coast of the US. Our first-born kids were each other’s best friends for two years, and that muscle memory has stuck even though we only see them once a year these days. It’s been nearly 8 years of friendship, and I hope for several dozen more.