The first weekend was the shower from my sister, sister-in-law, and my mom. The extra special part was that my sister flew all the way from Virginia to have this shower for me. To say that I’m thankful for my sister would be an understatement; we are blessed with a super amazing, hard to explain in words, blessed by the Lord relationship. I felt so special that she would throw a shower for me living so far away!  One thing that I just loved about that shower was that she took some time to pause and reflect on the Lord’s goodness. She told God’s story, our unique story-through her lens-and it was so amazing to be reminded of how intimately she and so many others have been involved in our journey. Specifically, how many people have prayed alongside of us for a child. Many of you have cried with us, cried for us, prayed with us, prayed for us, encouraged us, loved on us, and now are rejoicing with us for this baby girl. And all that has only only been possible because the Lord has shown us the value of letting people in-of sharing life with others. As as we have shared our life, our story, and our journey over the last four years, He has provided so many people who have personally and intimately been involved in God’s amazing story…the story of how now is His perfect timing for us to have a baby of our own, after waiting four years. And we don’t believe His story and us having children is done either, as many of you have prayed with us for adoption. We continue to seek Him and His perfect timing for that, and  we are just taking this one baby at a time…!

Here are some highlights from the first weekend of festivities!!

This shower was at Cathy Swanson’s house(my sister’s mother-in-law).. but also a dear friend who also has been praying for us, loving on me and encouraging me over the years. She has such a generous and tender heart, I’m so thankful for her!

Let’s be honest, it’s fun to be spoiled.

This unborn baby girl and I were so loved on and spoiled, I can’t even begin to tell you! I went back to the States, to California, for the sole purpose of being showered! The oh so special women in my life-my mothers and sisters-all insisted throwing me and Brandon a baby shower, and who am I to argue?

To be honest, it was strange to think about flying all that way for two parties. But they were no ordinary parties I’ll tell you that much. And when we decided to have our baby girl here,in Nicaragua, it hit me that we wouldn’t really be able to celebrate there in person with everyone. I mean that is true of anyone who has children far from family and old friends.  And even though God has been so gracious, and we’ve already met and made some amazing friends here,it’s just not the same as being in your home town for the birth of your first child. Family and friends from back home-and even many of you in other locations far from California-have been walking alongside of us in this journey for a long time. Which simply means, the rejoicing is even more so, since many of you know the difficult road we traveled down to come to this point. And that is why it was so extra special to take a moment to celebrate this baby girl.

And did we ever celebrate this total miracle from the Lord!!

Pictures and thoughts to come…

Painting her room and getting it ready …! It was so fun to pick out colors (and they actually have legit paint stores with more than the basic four colors! woot woot!!)

And we went to a new friends house for their daughter’s first birthday-it was so fun! And no birthday celebration (or really any celebration I am learning) is complete here without a piñata! And this party had TWO. Beat that. You could tell these kids were professionals too, cause as the last kiss of death hit was about to be made, they were all on the edges of their seats waiting to run and get as much candy as they could! We had a lot of fun.

 

 

And just when you think life is normal and calm, the next day the volcano that is about 25 miles away from us began erupting!! Now, having no experience with volcano’s, we both thought it was pretty cool-but also terrifying. Apparently, the warning system here is kind of like our fire danger/warning system in San Diego. They have different colors for the different risks/stages. Well, I guess volcanos can erupt, but in stages. So this one was a stage one, then stage two…which means just mostly smoke and ash come spewing out. They did evacuate the tiny town right below it, but not the next largest town of Chinendega. So what did we do? Drove out to get a closer look, or course. Not that close-don’t worry we are not THOSE people. But just outside of Leon, so we could get a good look. Very interesting!!

A little crafting for the baby’s room…

 

And just in case I, or you, may forget how different Brandon and I are sometimes, here is what Brandon was doing while I was crafting things for her room… yes, he is starting a savings account already. No lie. It was hilarious! We got this plastic piggy bank as a party favor at the birthday party, and I had to put it in her room cause it was purple. Well, no more than a few days pass by, and my husband is already clinking away loose change for his unborn daughter. I found it both humorous and re-assuring, my sweet husband,the planner.

One thing that Brandon and I just love is baseball! And turns out, so do Nicargauans! woot woot! There is a team for Leon, and the staduim is just about a mile down the street from us. We went to a game, and just loved it. Loved it. There is something so wonderful about enjoying the same sport, no matter what your language is. That, and I just love how something are the same no matter what country you are in: The singing of the National Anthem before a game, the singing and chanting all throughout the game (although they win for being more boisterous!), eating of yummy and nasty vendor food, enjoying peanuts and beer (without the eye gouging mark up prices too!), and cheering for your favorite team. One thing that was different- the fans are very polite. Of course they yell and scream more for their team that the US, but they don’t ever boo the umpire-I noticed when I started to boo a terrible call and people were like ‘what are you doing’. I thought it was rather interesting-not sure where I lie on that one-I kind of enjoy harassing those guys.

Okay, okay. Here is pregnancy shot. All ya’ll have been asking for one, for which I am not purposely avoiding, but it can feel funny to post photos of my belly. So, here is one that is kinda dark, but you get the point! Mind you, this was about a month ago, so I may, may, be a bit bigger now! haha This is at the beach just a little ways down the road from us… It’s so lovely.