CHRISTIAN SINGER/AUTHOR KATHY Troccoli is playing tour guide. Armed with a cup of Starbucks coffee, she's showing her close friend and colleague Dee Brestin the new home she just built in suburban Nashville. After living in Long Island her entire life and commuting to Nashville to record albums, Kathy, a 20-year veteran recording artist in the Christian music industry, recently decided to make Tennessee her permanent home.

With walls painted in deep tones of mustard, sage, and red, and rooms outfitted with vintage furniture, the home is picturesque. But what's even more heartwarming is Dee's reaction to the tour. The soft-spoken Bible teacher and author gently oohs and ahhs as she affectionately squeezes Kathy's arm and expresses happiness for her friend.

Their interaction is a snapshot of a surprising relationship that began five years ago when Dee, an introverted, conservative mother of five, found herself befriending single, extroverted, flyby-the-seat-of-your pants Kathy.

The two met in the backstage area of a women's conference they were helping to lead in Indiana and hit it off. A few months later, they ran into each other again, and Dee, in her typically friendly yet inquisitive manner, began probing Kathy on what her life as a single was like.

"Suddenly Kathy pulled out a journal in which she was writing her personal thoughts to the man she hopes one day to marry," Dee remembers.

Kathy began the journal in 1994. "I've written about special times--whether it was watching the snow fall, being on vacation, or standing in front of the ocean--that I want to share with a man someday," Kathy says. "I sensed I could trust Dee. So I said: 'Here. Take the journal and read it. Then you'll understand how I feel.'"

"From that moment on, I knew Kathy was a deep soul," Dee says. "She was willing to be vulnerable, which is crucial for a true friendship."

As Kathy and Dee have learned from other women and most recently from each other, deep friendships are ones based on risk-taking, honest, and a willingness to share times of sorrow and--sometimes even more importantly--times of blessing.

"There can be so much rivalry between women," Dee says. "But if you believe God has a unique purpose and plan for your life, then you can rejoice when great things happen to others around you."

If Dee sounds like an expert on the topic of friendship, it's because she is. Sixteen years ago, she shared her insights on relationships between females in The Friendships of Women (Cook Communications), which Focus on the Family founder James Dobson described as a book every woman should read.

Why? Because Dee cut through the stereotypical fluffiness of how people can approach the topic of friendship and discussed the pain these relationships sometimes can cause. She also revealed the deep need we all have for intimacy with other women. And sometimes, she says, that intimacy can be found between the unlikeliest of people.

That's the case with the friendship that began to blossom...