This week, another little girl gave Ana a friendship bracelet.  Ana was over the moon excited, as seven year old girls will be about things like friends and jewelry.  (To be fair, I get kind of excited when my best friend, Wes, gives me jewelry, too.  So maybe it’s a “girl of all ages” kind of thing.)

As Ana was celebrating this new friendship and all that comes with it, Emma came to me and said, very simply and very quietly, “I did not get a friendship bracelet.”

Knowing that no one was excluding her purposefully and that this may just be the first time that our girls are beginning to blaze their own trails in their own friendships and relationships apart from one another, I got down on my knees so that I could look her in the eyes.

“You can be my friend,” I said.

And she ran into my arms, hugged me super tight, and whispered, “We’ll be best friends.”

I’m more than okay with this.

And I hope she still feels the same way years from now.