BIG shower!

We are so overwhelmed at the outpouring of love we saw tonight at our BIG baby shower thrown by our Sunday School class -- the amount of folks that came, the amount of food that was prepared, the thought and time that so obviously went into the decorations, setup, games, etc.

We.were.floored.  To say the least.

And it was a blast!  We laughed a lot, ate a lot, cried some.  :)  It was such a blessing to us...the photos (taken by one very talented Summer Saunders) should pretty much speak for themselves:

Our sweet friend, Catherine, took 8x10 copies of some of our maternity photos and did scrapbook pages of them to set on all the tables...and those are coffee beans.  :)  Nice touch!

[the multitude of gifts]

[the absolutely gorgeous cake that our friend, Stephen, MADE...]

[34 weeks pregnant]

[*gasp* a chocolate fountain!]

This is normally the room that our Sunday School class meets in, now filled with things of the party persuasion.  It was a great venue to throw a shower in.  And hold everyone.  :)

The onesie and hat say "I was worth the wait."  :)

I had to throw in a photo of my ridiculously cute niece, Cora Beth.  Had to.  :)

[so, so very glad that my family could be there for this special night]

So many folks were involved in the planning of this shower and so much time and thought and love went into making it a success -- those girls on the "planning committee" thought of everything!  We could not have asked for anything more special than what was presented tonight.

Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU to all of those who spent any amount of time on any aspect of this shower -- you blessed our hearts so much!

Thank you to Summer Saunders who left us with these and so many more photos of these precious memories for us.

Thank you to all of those who were able to attend -- we had a wonderful time with you all!  Your love and generosity are so overwhelming to us and we're so grateful for each of you!

And thank you to our Lord Jesus who has brought each and every loved one into our lives so that we could experience the kind of love that we did tonight.  Our hearts and our lives are so full!

reflections from a soon-to-be mommy's heart...

Some of my girlfriends and I are doing a bible study right now called Make Over: Revitalizing the Many Roles You Fill.  It's a 6-week study but since we meet just once a month, it turns into a 6-month study for us.

We met last Sunday evening and we were studying Week Four: Mom.  How fitting.  Of course, I'm not a mom yet but I went through this week's lesson thinking in the future and though there were some things I couldn't really answer right now, there were other things I could address from a future standpoint -- things I desire to do or be for my kids, things I desire for my kids to do or be.

It was really quite thought-provoking and reflective for me.

I know most of my posts on this blog thus far have been more factual in nature -- what's going on with the baby and his development, what's happening at my doctor's appts, what we're doing to prepare for the baby's arrival.  But today I wanted to post some things from my heart...

Day 1 of  this week's study got me thinking about something along the lines of the expectations of motherhood.  Though I didn't answer the question exactly, it did get me to thinking about me personally as a mom, and how I want my kids to see me:

I just want to be a mom my kids can look up to and admire, a good example for them.  I want them to understand that I'm not perfect but that I try to do my best in this thing called life.  I want them to observe the good, right things that I do and take hold of those, while understanding that the not-so-good things that I do are due to my imperfection and forgot about those.  :)  I want them to always feel loved by me and to feel like they can come to me for anything at all.  I want them to know Christ, to love Him and to live their lives for Him.  And I want them to want that by observing the way I live mine.

Each day of the week's lesson, we end with prayer regarding the things we've learned through that day's lesson.  This is my prayer for day 1:

Heavenly Father, I thank you for providing us with this house we're living in, in a safe community, in a great nation where, right now, we can raise our kids in your ways, to know and love you.  I pray that you would give us wisdom and the knowledge we need to take this parenting thing one day at a time.  I pray for a desire to teach our kids all about you and not to miss any opportunity to show them how you love them.  Lord, I ask that you would give us both a desperate desire to be in continual prayer for our kids no matter what stage of life they're in.

In Day 2, a question about our long-term goals for our kids came up...

...for them to know Christ, to find someone to spend their rest of their lives with in marriage, to be role models/examples for others to look to, to live a blessed life..

My prayer on Day 2:

Heavenly Father, though we don't have any kids to raise yet I'm thankful to have you to lean on as we look to the future -- as little as 3 months from now!  :)  I pray (again) for your wisdom and knowledge to consume us both as parents as we strive to raise this child (and others) in your ways, in your truth.  I pray for stength and discernment to know when to tell our kids no and when it's okay to say yes.  I pray that you would help us not to raise our kids with little responsibility but to teach them what that means, that those lessons would carry them into healthy adulthood.

On Day 3, we talked about concerns for our kids growing up and making their own decisions -- whether good or bad...

...when it's hard to let them go and make their own decisions/mistakes, we can trust that God will watch over them and protect them much more than we can...

My prayer on Day 3:

Lord Jesus, I pray again for your wisdom as we prepare to bring a precious baby boy into this world.  I pray that the faith I have grown up with, that I have grown in all these years, will be evident in every aspect of my parenting.  I pray, God, that our kids would be able to see you in me but that that would not be enough.  Lord, help me to be diligent in pointing our kids to their Redeemer -- help me to talk about you, to ask them questions, to pray with them.  Help me to know the importance, to understand just how priceless it is to lead them to you; that that is THE most important thing I could ever do for my kids.

On Day 4, we talked about our relationships (or goals for relationships) with our kids...

I want my kids to feel comfortable enough to come to us about anything, no matter how silly, embarassing, small or large it seems to them (or us); I want the wisdom to treat each case with as much seriousness as it warrants based on how my kids view it.

And this statement that the author made really stuck with me:

How we talk to our kids when they're sixteen hinges on how we've talked to them all along.

Think about it.  I did.  For a long while.  And that shaped my prayer for Day 4:

Lord Jesus, I'm so thankful that you blessed me with parents who encouraged communication and who were always there for us growing up.  I always felt like I could talk to them about anything -- we had a great relationship.  I want that same thing with my kids.  I pray, Lord, that you would help us to cultivate that same atmosphere in our home.  I pray that we would treat our kids in such a way that they would feel comfortable coming to us about whatever, that we would listen with our whole hearts and really hear what they're saying (or not saying), and then offer them your wisdom -- the things we've learned from our relationship, our communication, with our Heavenly Father.

I know this got kind of long, but I just felt like I wanted to share some of the things on my heart concerning the impending arrival of our little one.

random thoughts...

I keep having these random thoughts about this and that re: the pregnancy.

I was online today searching for baby blogs I could start following.  I found a couple that look good -- one is a mother of twins and one older daughter.  She started the blog when she got pregnant with her twin girls so I went back to the beginning to try to catch up.  I learned quite a bit.

Did I mention I wouldn't mind having twins?

I think we've got a better grip on the plan to share the news but I feel like I'm stressing myself to death over this!  There's only so much you can control, you know?  My main thing is that our immediate family (parents and siblings) know before anyone else.  Then our Sunday School class because they're all like family to us, too.

Thought tonight about the fact that it would be nice to see my mom's face when she finds out but that won't happen because we don't have any plans to get together with them soon and I can't wait much longer.  It's probably better anyway.  I'm sure it would be a cryfest.  :)