Grown-Up Mommy Girlfriends let you drop your kids off at their house when you have a doctor’s appointment, can’t find a babysitter or just need a break. They know when you’re about to cry, when you can’t take your children crying anymore and the best movies for a good cry. They give you extra diapers so you don’t have to run to the grocery, extra encouragement when you’re headed to your parent/teacher conference and they help you realize that just because the world’s most important job doesn’t come with a paycheck, it does come with wet, slurpy kisses, little, gooey handprints on your slightly rounder thighs and unconditional, all encompassing, “I’ll do anything for this kid,” love.

Grown-Up Mommy Girlfriends listen to your stories even when there doesn’t seem to be a point or you can’t get to the point. They don’t mind fragmented, interrupted, “never finish a complete thought” conversations. Grown-Up Mommy Girlfriends are just happy to be with you and your crew whether they’re helping you clean up the old food wrappers in your car, or the size six dresses in your closet or the grimy grout on your kitchen counters tops.

Grown-Up Mommy Girlfriends can show each other their tummy scars, trade detailed, “more information than anyone ever needed to know” labor stories and help each other save a fortune on salon treatments you can do at home. They believe that mothers really do change the world child-by-child, day-by-day and prayer-by-prayer. And most of all, Grown-Up Mommy Girlfriends make you feel better when you don’t feel very grown-up at all.

“My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:12-13