Happy Birthday Ellen

I didn't buy you a card. But, since you chastise me for keeping you up at night reading my blog I thought maybe this would be even better.
Tomorrow is the birthday of a very good friend. I have known her for a long time. I first was introduced to her twenty or more years ago because I just had to meet this remarkable woman who had applied to adopt through two different means, actually had two babies placed by those two agencies and discovered she was pregnant all within months of each other...She was the hero of many women in town. She handled it all with grace and gratefulness. A few years after we met, my family built a house in her neighborhood, we now lived two blocks from each other but had no real connection until that day when my Micah came home from a band trip to Myrtle Beach talking non-stop about a boy named "Blake". Somehow I knew that his mom and I would become friends for life.
A few years later that boy and Micah were planning a wedding. Ellen was a joy to work with on this. She was always willing to go the extra mile to help. She welcomed my baby girl into their family and accepted us and our little additions as her own. I can't begin to count the times she's called and asked if I needed a break, or if she could just take the girls somewhere. She's tutored them, fed them, bought them clothes even bought tap shoes for them. We jokingly refer to our little girls as her "practice grandchildren", of course they love her and always consider going anywhere with Miss Ellen a special treat! I could never tell her how much her help has meant to me but I often refer to her as my "right arm". She's always there when we need her. Once, I had one child with strep. I was busy with my mother in the hospital and couldn't take the sick one with me...she called out of the blue, didn't know that the child was sick but asked me if I needed something...I told her I didn't because I didn't want her exposed to strep, she laughed over the phone and told me she had been exposed to everything under the sun as a teacher (just retired) and to bring that baby to her! That's a friend!
So, instead of a birthday card, I wanted to dedicate this entry to Ellen Melnick, a friend in deed. Happy Happy Birthday!!! You are going to be a fabulous grandmother!
I love you!
Angie