Whether you want to call it a baby (or not-so-baby) shower or an adoption celebration... I was certainly surrounded by so much love and support in November to celebrate our adoption of the twins! Lots of pink, tasty things to eat, people I love, and adorable & generous gifts. It was such a nice distraction from the emerging reality that the girls won't be home with us for Thanksgiving. It was so nice to be excited and celebrate and to feel so much support from so many people.
On November 14th my friend Natalie threw an adoption celebration for me and invited our neighbors and church friends. Everything was so nice and I found myself feeling really overwhelmed by everyone's generosity. My jaw hit the ground when I got home and realized that I hadn't remembered to take pictures of anyone at the shower... I think it was a combination of having such a nice time visiting and talking about the girls and the fact that I was, like I said, a bit overwhelmed at all the attention and generosity. I'm so glad that I snapped a few pictures when I got there to capture a few of the details and to jog my memory of that special celebration...
Natalie showed me after the shower that there was a framed picture of Mark with the girls on the mantle too, but just before people started to arrive it fell and broke. I love that she thought to include one of him with them too...and I really LOVED that she printed the girls' names and put them up with their pictures so everyone could see them and know their names.
Everything looked so pretty and tasted so yummy!
One of the most special touches to the celebration was that Natalie went to all the effort to learn about Soup Joumou and spend the entire day making it! That was really special to me. I loved it. And it was delicious!
I just have to mention that when I was a girl I did NOT like the color pink. It wasn't until I went away to college that I decided to embrace it. I've waited a LOT of years to incorporate it with anything related to my kids though...bring on the girl stuff! And, as a side-note, Natalie sent me home with these flowers and they stayed gorgeous forever!
I received so many generous, thoughtful gifts...books, darling clothes, gift cards, bed sheets, aprons, crafting supplies & smocks, hair products, dress ups, pillow cases with their names on them, snack containers, scarves and TWO CAR SEATS! Are you kidding me?! That really blew me away. Both the generosity of it all and that I can bring our sweet girls home in those two car seats. Hopefully soon!!! I went home emotional, happy, and full of so much gratitude.
A couple weeks prior on November 2nd my mom and sister-in-laws threw a family shower too!
I know how much time and effort goes into planning an event like this and there were so many lovely details to appreciate. That gorgeous naked cake with the beautiful flowers was the best tasting cake I've ever had in my life thank you, Amy! (I think she said it had Chantilly cream in the middle? It was sooo good)...the cookies were so darling, the decorations were so pretty, there were ranunculus from my very favorite flower shop, and so many tasty things to eat!
I loved that by having a shower game centered around Haiti it gave us all a chance to talk about the girl's heritage.
People that came included aunts, my grandma, cousins, my mom (obviously), Mark's mom, my sister-in-laws, a niece, and three of my childhood friends who are more like family honestly...
 |
| Aunt Linda, Grandma Shirlene, Aunt Lois, cousin's wife Andrea |
 |
| Me with my cousin Jeanette (and Dalynne behind us!) |
 |
| Mary and me |
 |
Becky and Allison
|
 |
| My niece Audrey |
 |
| Sister-in-law Amy touching up the cake she made |
I absolutely LOVED that my mom strung together these banners of pictures of the girls. Love, love, loved it!
 |
| My grandma Shirlene with her sister Lois |
 |
| Aunt Barbara & my cousin Dalynne |
 |
| How adorable are these dolls that my friend Allison gave me for the girls' birthday??? |
 |
| My SIL Miranda (who drove 5 hours to come all the way from St. George!) and my niece Audrey. |
 |
| How pretty is this?? My niece Audrey painted it! So, so thoughtful and such a meaningful gift! It will be perfect in the girls' room and I'm trying to figure out the perfect spot for it still (these kind of decisions take me a while...) |
 |
| How darling are these purses my mom bought for the girls? |
 |
| My friend Becky gave me such BEAUTIFUL dresses for the girls |
We passed several of the gifts around so people could see them. I received so many nice things not shown in pictures here including: clothes, shower caps/detangler for the girls, blankets, bike helmets, ballet clothes, security blanket/toy, snow gloves/snow pants, books and toddler-proofing locks!
 |
| Me, Aunt Barbara, Aunt Lois, Mom, Grandma Shirlene |
 |
| Miranda, Me, Katie |
 |
| Al, Becky, me & Jenny |
What an absolutely perfect afternoon. I am so, so very blessed and I can't wait to introduce these sweet girls to so many people that have been praying for them and already love them too.
No comments:
Post a Comment