SURPRISE!!

When the pizza guy came to the door last night, here's what John saw:

It took a few seconds for John to process who the pizza delivery man was, but when he did, he was incredibly happy (and couldn't stop saying "heeeeyyyyy....".  It was Jared Moran, John's best friend.

And me, I just knelt down, right then and there, and began repenting of all the lies that I have told over the last four months, hiding this most amazing surprise :-)  I told Sarah the other day that I was glad to see the light at the end of the falsehood tunnel, because if I kept this up much longer, I was destined to end up in liars' hell...

Jared ran the Air Force marathon with John last year.  It was his first marathon, and from what he told us, his last.  However, he called in June and said he was coming again, but I was supposed to keep it a surprise from John.  I'm not sure what changed his mind, but we sure are glad he did.  John hates runnings marathons alone, and there's no better person than Jared!

For me, there's a sure fire test to determine if a person is a real friend, or not.  This is going to sound ridiculous, but for me, the more stressed I am about the person arriving, the more they are not my friend. Does that make sense?  I didn't worry or stress or panic about Jared coming.  He walked in the house, and it's like he's been here for years (he even remembered where we keep our cereal...)  Sure, I change the sheets, and clean the guest bathroom, but I know there will be no judging of me, or my family, by him.  We even invited Jared to watch the season premiere of The Walking Dead.  Believe me, we don't show that tv show to anyone.  He tried to make us feel better by telling us that his kids watch Modern Family.  Yeah, I don't think it's quite the same :-)

It's a beautiful thing to think that we first met the Morans when we moved into the Bitburg ward in Germany.  Jared had been assigned to be our home teacher, and he and Sarah invited us over to their apartment on base for dinner.  The rest is history.  We've traveled to Ireland and Poland together, we've visited each other in Germany and Pennsylvania, we've played countless hours of games,we've eaten many kebaps together and our kids are friends too.  All that from a good home teacher, doing what he's supposed to do.

So, I saw the men off this morning.  All the running gear is packed, and Jared volunteered to drive his sweet Nissan rental.  The weather is supposed to be ideal tomorrow.  Good luck, John and Jared!