Saturday, March 23, 2013

B is for Books and Baby Shower!

Last Saturday night my parents arrived in town for the week. It'd been a year since they visited Amarillo as mom used her spring break to spend time with us for that trip too. This year it was especially exciting to have them come because the church threw me a baby shower while they were here. Because of the large number of pictures I have and all the things we got into during the week following - the baby shower is going to have a post of it's own!

The shower was thrown by ladies at Beautiful Savior and if the number of ladies who planned it were the only ones to show up, I would have thought the shower a huge success.The shower started at 4:00 and ended at 6:30 as a 'drop-in' in kind of thing. I swear there was a point in time when I have never seen that fellowship hall so full. Not only were there a ton of people, there were a lot of older ladies that came back out for the shower that sometimes don't even make it on a Sunday morning. Talk about feeling the love! Everyone seemed to have a great time and the buzz and excitement permeated the air  the whole time. I had to take a break from opening presents to actually enjoy all the refreshments people worked so hard on...it was VERY brief and I STILL ended up closing the party by finishing opening gifts.

Here are a few pictures of the spread these ladies put out!




 The cake says "Thank You Lord for this Precious Baby to Stephen and Betsy". It couldn't have been a better cake caption - unless there was enough cake to add precious baby to our congregation, because that's how we really felt!

 This was the cutest veggie dip bowl! A bunny rabbit!

 Along with the bunny bowl was a huge spread of fresh veggies, some fresh fruit, a variety of finger sandwiches and of course, cake and punch!

This baby is so loved and spoiled by everyone here already!

I could post a billion pictures of opening presents, but here is just a few! We got a lot of the things we needed that were on our registry, plus because of the book themed baby shower - a lot of great books to read. However, lots of people put in some long hours for some beautiful homemade gifts!

 Two ladies worked on this blanket. The middle was crocheted by one woman, and the border knitted by another! Love the team work!
 This quilt with the purple cross in the center was talked about in cognito for several months! Laurie kept waiting to hear what I was having to choose colors. You can't see it here, but each white square surrounding the purple cross has a different color pastel polka-dot. The cross is a purple and white polka-dot. I love the way the cross stands out. She'll recognize the cross from an early age since I can put her down for tummy time on this blanket!
 Ada, pictured in the "hot seat" here, hand embroidered this blanket. I have SO much respect for that as I am absolutely terrible at it. I asked her if it took her forever and she said it did, but smiled and didn't seem to mind. I always want people to know I appreciate the effort it takes!

Two ladies from Viking (where I work) also made gifts but unfortunately I did not get pictures of those (I think someone else did so we may have a round two of pictures from the shower. I had vaguely heard of their plans when I gave them the date for the shower - and knowing what fantastic work they do, I was super excited for the quilt that Jenis pieced and stippled herself, and the cutest little purple dress (because Jeanne knows I'm a purple girl- of course the daughter will be) with bloomers. I was so pleased they came to the shower when they knew no one but each other. That store (and those ladies) have been such a blessing to me, especially because they picked up right where I left off and the store is running great without me there all the time. We all worked hard to turn it around and I'm pleased they take as much pride in it as I did and that they continue to love and support me so much even after I got pregnant and left them high and dry being so ill with this pregnancy!

This is not to diminish the gifts that weren't homemade. We needed the essentials we also received and having the financial burden of having a lot of them gifted to us was a huge blessing. Not to mention, baby girl will be the cutest dressed of them all!

Here's a shot or two of the crowd...




There was some discussion about when the last time a pastor had actually had their child while they were serving at Beautiful Savior and I don't think an answer was found. Pastor Meyer (the one before us) had young kids when he got here, but they weren't born here. He served here 20 years before us and it seemed as though they didn't think the pastor before him had kids here either. I guess that makes for the reason for all the fuss. Either way, we were incredibly thankful! I'm still blown away by the generosity and excitement of everyone. I cannot hardly put into words how blessed I feel! These people care for us so much! 

Mom said she had a conversation with a parishoner who lamented she was afraid she wouldn't have us for very long...especially now with the baby. Mom was honest and admitted her desire to have her grand baby close, but it's hard to be too sad when we're taken such good care of. Who knows when and where God will call us, but for right now, we are so thankful for the gift God gives us in the people of this church. It's sad to say, but not everyone is so blessed, and while I'll admit I suffer from homesickness like a champ sometimes, it's hard to think of leaving a place where people care so much about being living the Christian life. These people do mission well, they care for one another and yes every church has it's ups and downs, but sacrificing location for a place where God is up to so much good is hard to think about!

The rest of this week was spent putting together the nursery which was a bigger task than I had realized. Stephen and I were SO thankful for the help my mom and dad offered. If it weren't for them, I don't think we would ever have the nursery put together! Stay tuned...


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