neighbor friend

i highly recommend, if you have young children, that you: 1. find a neighbor with young children. 2. befriend that neighbor. 3. trade turns babysitting for each other. 4. become great friends.
my wife and i successfully accomplished this feat with this young woman and her wonderful family. we first met at a "neighborhood watch" type get together... that is not usually something that i do. she had a very young baby, and my daughter was several years old at the time, and this neighbor desperately looked to my wife and i for a little bit of support... or a huge chunk of it. the first number of months with a newborn are trying, period. it is an upheaval of galactic proportions, and new parents must find a way to understand that this stage is going to fade. our friend here just needed a little bit of hope. i remember the look on her face as one of "oh, god, please help me, because i see that you survived raising a newborn and i feel like i'm going to flip out soon please help me." well, i am pleased to report that she did survive too, and she and her husband have done well with their angel that is a dozen handfuls... notice the photo with the pink clad girl in the background picking up a plastic wheel barrow... that is her daughter. it has been a blessing to have made such a friend with this neighbor. we have shared mother's days, father's days, snow days, saturdays, and many other moments that have made life more joyful because they have been shared with a friend. we fairly regularly still trade nights to babysit for the other, and it really is a huge benefit... as i said, i highly recommend it. on top of all of that, she has helped me create my art website and my photography website... extra benefits as she is a wonderful project manager for a design firm. she is a delightful human being with an passionate, insatiable appetite for Life. thanks, neighbor, friend.