Happy Birthday to Charity Lynn Throener! 25 years old today. Lift your glass and cheer this girl I met over 13 years ago… We were both (dorky) 7th graders at Pound Junior High who had recently moved to town, both needing friends amidst the maze and chaos that defines those young adolescent years. Encore, Mr. D (the egomaniac) falling off the table – ha! and telling me to “get those greasy bangs out of my face”, Paula and Yucca (“Yucca, my cup ranneth over about 10 minutes ago!” “Cosmo-freakin-politan.” belch.), youth group at EFree & one very fun New Year’s Eve party, DC Talk & Audio Adrenaline concerts, 9th grade basketball (including the infamous flash of pink at the Lefler game!!), and lots of passing notes between classes. Moving onto Southeast High School we thought we had arrived… Spring Day, plays and musicals, journalism, tp-ing cars, getting rejected for basketball and the one-act in the same month, football games at Seacrest, proms and post-proms, major crushes on boys (some pretty cool and some, we now realize, quite unattractive!), experiencing Horn Creek and realizing our lives were forever changed by it, visiting Lipscomb University and Covenant College, still writing notes and passing them in the halls, and finally graduating and successfully moving on. You to Covenant and I to the University — both not sure of what we were getting into. You found a family there and I found mine here; amazing how God works, huh? : ) The Philippines and FFH, St. Louis and CTS. Lincoln, Nebraska. Soon to be living next door. It’s been a beautiful 13 years. I love you! Happy Birthday, Scarlett/Paula/CT!