Meet Stephanie...

So my fabulous blogging friend Kate does this from time to time...she introduces someone of interest in her life, and exposes their awesomeness. I am doing much the same thing with my dear friend Stephanie. She has been in my thoughts a lot lately, because she is helping me out in a BIG way! When I upgraded from 22 to 24 credits this semester, because I needed to switch teachers for reasons I won't divulge. She was the first person who came to mind--someone I knew I could trust Connor with for 2-3 hours per week. So without further ado...meet Stephanie!

Stephanie Marie Barlow

Married to David Benjamin Barlow (awesome middle name eh?)

Mother of David Benjamin Jr. Barlow (She calls their family Stephanie and the Davids..ha ha)
Amazing friend
Devoted member of the Church
Beautiful Mother
Sincere, trustworthy, and all the other good words :)

She has a son who is 2 days younger than Connor, David Jr. She was checking in to the hospital on my last night there, but we didn't know each other yet. I wish we had though, it would have been fun to exchange horror stories! (We've since done so.)

Stephanie's husband David is our Elder's Quorum President, and he does an amazing job of it. I feel like David and Stephanie are the "parents" of the ward. I always hear of random acts of service they do for people in the ward. And the wonderful part is I know they don't do it for praise. In fact they'll probably be a tad embarrassed when they read this post. But the truth is- they both deserve it.

Stephanie was the first great friend I made since living in Cedar. She and David were standing behind me in line once and the grocery store--we had probably only been to the college married ward a few times, and really hadn't talked much with anyone yet. They remembered my name and said hello. They told me how they had also met online, on Myspace, and had a son Connor's age and that we would be great friends! I totally agreed! They later said they were afraid they had come off weird by insisting that we be friends...but I didn't think so. They were genuine from the start! I think one of the first things I told them was that I loved shopping good deals, and they should check out the top sirloin steaks..ha ha I was buying like $50 worth. ANYWAY...

We have since had them over for dinner and loved their company. If life weren't so busy I'm sure they would have been over more than just the once, but Stephanie and I have had fun yard sale-ing (ok we only went once...lame) and having play time with our boys.

Overall, Stephanie is the perfect example of Christlike love. She visits the Beehive home which is almost next door to my house, to visit with the elderly. She is always selfless with her time and talents. She is a beautiful person, inside and out. I'm so thankful for friends like her, she has truly been an answer to many of my prayers, and I hope reading this she knows how much
I love her! I also love her little boy so much, and love seeing he and Connor play together. I think it will be fun to continuously watch them grow and learn how to play more with each other.

These are some pictures I took from Stephanie's Facebook profile--and some I took at our house when the boys were younger.

Thanks for all your wonderfulness Stephanie!!!