How the internet can help you connect to old friends

This has really been a strange couple of months for me. I have to tell you all a little about myself so you will really understand the impact of what has happened.

I grew up in Germany and met my now Ex husband when he was stationed over there in the Army. I was the typical teenager, part of a group of friends, we hung out together, cried together and partied together. I was the first one of our group to move to the states to marry in 1988. Slowly everyone ended up over here, which is strange in itself, everyone married their boyfriends, but we all ended up strung out all over the country and never really had a chance to visit each other. Since i've been over here i've had visits from 2 of my old german friends but that was a few years after being here.

Fast forward...21 years later, i had lost contact with most of them, some went back to germany, some moved, life just happened and we just lost each other. A couple of years ago i found my best friend and we try to keep in touch, but the rest..they just seemed to have disappeared. I would look, i would google, i would search myspace for names, you name it i've tried it, i finally just gave up.

Out of the whole group i used to "hang with" in germany, there were a couple of people i really missed, you know the ones you just felt that you had that bond with. Last month i received an email from a german website (similar to classmates.com) that someone had sent me a message, so i went to check it out. One of those 2 people that i was close to had found me, and sent me her number. She's still in the states and i think we talked for about 2 hours trying to catch up. I was so thrilled..but i was still missing that other one.

So saturday comes around and i'm browsing the web, twittering doing my thing and i decided to log into facebook, i made an account months ago, never really used it, no profile picture, no friends, but i just thought i log in for..well nothing really. I had a friend request..i look at the name, i thought hmm..i know that name, but the picture on the profile wasn't really clear and i thought i don't know this dude..why is he asking to be my friend? So i look at his profile...retired from the army after 21 years, living in germany, bla bla bla..i thought ARE YOU KIDDING ME? yep you guessed it...my long lost friends husband. Now talk about being shocked..i almost did a happy dance. We exchanged a few emails since then and they are both just as thrilled as i am that we found each other again, so now we are in the beginning stages of trying to figure out how to meet up, when, where, should they come, should i go..you know, the chaotic planning that is wishful thinking at this point but we hope to make it reality within the next 2 years.

I'm just throwing this post out there, i know there are many people that hope to find friends, family etc on the net...it is possible! My friends always make fun of me cause i seem to be signed up with everything, well sometimes it can make it a big difference. Don't give up, keep searching, besides these 2 i also found an aunt of mine and my cousins a few years ago that i hadn't seen in at least 25 years. So keep the faith, it is possible!