As Americans celebrate Thanksgiving with friendship and family over the holiday weekend, two friends are celebrating a special bond that’s been years in the making.Kriste Everett said she’s pulled out her cellphone camera many times in the last 13 years, just to capture what people may have missed in the first 40 years of friend Robbie Marts’ life.Marts, now 53, has autism. He lived at Linn Valley Lake in Kansas, where Everett would vacation every summer.“Not a lot of people knew much about him at the lake,” Everett said.She said she would see him usually pacing his front yard, shy and unable to speak much. Then they met.“I went and introduced myself to his mom and I said anytime he wants to come over and hang out with us, he is welcome to come over to our place,” Everett said.Her invitation led to Marts singing songs, playing guitar and even going out on water he was once afraid of. He slowly started trusting Everett as a friend. She said she quickly saw him becoming part of her family.“Once the season was over, I’d miss him like crazy and his mom let him come here to stay for Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s,” Everett said.About 47 miles separated Marts’ house at the lake to the home where Everett and her family lived in Shawnee. She said it always felt a little too far until last year.“When his mom found out she was dying, she asked me if I’d be willing to take him and I don’t know how you say no to that,” Everett said.Marts moved in with Everett and her family, feeling like he had been part of it all along.A picture near the front door of the home reads “Live life to the fullest and make a difference along the way.”“Treat people with kindness,” Everett said. “I get emotional when I talk about him sometimes, but I can’t imagine being somewhere they didn’t treat him properly. He deserves everything and I just hope we can give him that.”“We live in Shawnee, Kansas, forever and ever, amen,” Marts said.“This is where he wants to be,” Everett said. “Forever and ever, amen.”Marts and Everett are both big Disney fans. Friends recently raised money to send Marts on his first trip to Walt Disney World next month. Everett will be right there with him.If you'd like to help Marts with spending money for the trip, donations can be made here.