Tribute #7 - Nichole Davis

Tribute #7 goes out to my very first friend in Prattville, AL. Nikki is one of the most special people in my life!
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Nik and I met the way I meet a lot of my friends....on the softball fields. I wrote the other day about the FBC-Prattville softball team and how special they were....well Nikki was on that team. Though we met in 1992, it was a number of years before we really became close friends. We played ball together and we'd occasionally do things outside of church, but we led really different lives back then. I remember a couple of poignant things about those early years. One.....I worked at a paper mill and would sometimes come into church after a Sat night midnight shift. I think Nikki would hope I didn't see her or surround herself with her teeny-bopper friends so I wouldn't sit by her....but occasionally I did. I don't think I realized how much I stunk after 8hrs in the mill. The other thing I remember, more fondly, was Nikki coming by my apt/house not long after I'd moved with a t-shirt. A birthday present. A 'No-Fear' t-shirt (remember when those were the rage?). It was the weirdest, most unexpected thing....but also one of the kindest things. It made an impression.

I don't know when we became close friends. Sometime in the mid-late 90's I suppose. We were pretty good friends by the time I had my first daughter, Sara, in 1998. We were in the same Sunday School class, still played softball together, and were part of a small group of couples that used to go out and do dinner/drinks in Montgomery on Thursday nights. Nikki had her first daughter shortly after I had mine...so we went through the whole 'first baby' thing together. We then had our second daughters right around the same time two years later. *For the record, she kept going and has FOUR kids now....I stopped at two.

Here's where Nikki becomes the soul sister that she is today. After spending almost 10 years in Prattville, AL, Nikki was the first friend that I shared my heart and soul with. She was there in the middle of the night one night when I needed to be heard, to be understood, to be loved on. I needed a friend to know me better than any other did. I needed a friend to simply know me. I had a lot of skeletons in my closet that did nothing but weigh my down and pull me under. Opening up to Nikki and being received with such love gave me the confidence to stop hiding in the shadows and start believing in myself. Had Nikki laughed at me, had she shrugged off my hurts, if she'd reacted in ANY way different from how she did, I wouldn't be who I am today. Nikki is a great mom, a great wife and an awesome friend. She has a heart of gold and a tender spirit. If you don't know her, well, you should.

Nikki and I haven't lived in the same city for over 8yrs now. We still get together every year in the Spring though for Girls Weekend and we've started a Black Friday shopping/ice cream tradition with our girls in Prattville the last couple of Thanksgivings. We keep up over the phone, on Facebook and through email. Nikki and I know that we have one another's backs....that NOTHING could break apart the friendship that we share. We've been through a lot together and have grown closer through it all.

I told you that Nikki was my first friend in Prattville. Maybe my first friend as a real adult! I'll also tell you that if I started counting the women in my life who are the most special to me, that I'd still have at least a couple of fingers left on the first hand when I got to her.

Love you Nikki!!

Tribute #3 - Kathy Hill and the FBCP Softball Team

Tribute #3 is to Ms. Kathy Hill and the First Baptist Church - Prattville, AL women's softball team. This is a story about how I became connected to a church, to a Baptist church, and ultimately to the woman who would lead me to salvation.

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I moved to Prattville, AL from college in May 1992. I don't remember what day of the week I moved into my apartment, but I remember that first Saturday very very well. I had seen a large softball complex in Montgomery (P'ville was a suburb) and decided to drive over on that Saturday morning to see softball in the south. Turns out there was a tournament happening so I went in. Keep in mind that I was tough to impress back then....I was a seasoned fastpitch softball player not real impressed with slow-pitch. I realized though that I was officially an adult and that slow-pitch was all that was left for me (sniff sniff).

So I walked around the complex, stopping at each field to watch the teams. I got to one field in particular and liked what I saw....these women almost looked like they knew what they were doing! I sat down on the far end of the bleachers and watched - keeping to myself. It wasn't long that this woman spoke to me in that sweet southern voice; asking me if I knew someone on the team or something like that. I was polite and made small talk with her - she ended up introducing herself as the coach's wife - Kathy Hill. I told her that I'd just moved to town and she immediately invited me to church. Convenient that she and her husband, the coach, were the singles class teachers. (Nice work God.....)

So that was the beginning. I DID go the next day and the next week and probably the next week. While my desire was simply to pick up on this team, I ultimately made some friends, witnessed some joy and became a Christian three years later with the help of one of my teammates.

How bout that!?? Thank you Kathy Hill for reaching out to me, for not staying in your comfort zone with your friends, for caring enough to say 'hi'. Thank you FBCP softball team for welcoming me onto the team and being my friends even though I probably wasn't the most Christ-like on the field (hahaha). Gotta give it up to God too for orchestrating the circumstances of that Saturday morning too.....it gives me chills every time I think about it!