Shower of Blessings
May 31, 2008
The adoption shower last night was so much fun and we are so blessed by the friends and family that came. A HUGE thank you to Stacey for doing this for us. This is the second time she’s done such a shindig for me – she threw me a surprise shower when I was pregnant for Natalie. She’s had a crazy week with sick kids, dr. appts, and getting ready to go on the high school mission trip but she still found time to put this together. Her mom opened up their beautiful home for the night and we had a blast.
We ate yummy food and then quizzed all the ladies on their Ethiopian Trivia Knowledge. I was pretty impressed that both Grandmas got 6 out of 8 questions right! (Although MeeMaw cheated and asked Natalie the answer to one of them. Lucky for her Natalie is a good guesser.) 
Jen’s surprise was AWESOME! There is an African tradition called Blessing Cards. She handed each of the ladies rwo 4×6 sized card w/ a hole punched in one corner and they each wrote a special prayer or verse or blessing – one for W-boy and one for B-girl. Then, for each child, they chose two matching beads. One bead is attached to the card and then the other bead is strung on a string for the child. How cool is that? There’s a picture in the video below.
The cake was beautiful and yummy as I knew it would be. I asked for chocolate and said “Can you work peanut butter in there somehow?” So Michelle did a peanut butter mousse in the middle and some peanut butter in the frosting. It was delicious! (Hm, I’m thinking I’ll head to the refrigerator for some leftovers after this.)
We were totally blessed by all the gifts we received – bikes, scooters and helmets for both kids, clothes, pajamas, socks, sheets, games and coloring stuff to do on the plane, books, CD players, hair stuff (yeah!), a Frog Pod, wallets for the boys and purses for the girls and tons of gift cards. I am amazed and forever grateful.
So here’s some pictures from our fun night.
Song “Swept Away” by Geoff Moore
It looks like a wonderful evening, I’m so glad. I only wish I could have been there, looking at the pictures made me cry! I love you guys so much and I can’t wait to be there in the fall as a much bigger family!
Boy will it ever be a much bigger family! It was a wonderful night and we did miss you Jenny but we will make up for it when you are here with Baby Mac.
WoW! Awesome cake and I love the blessing cards and beads! We continue to pray for your adoption journey.
Aimee and Ben Woods
I’m so glad it turned out great! I had a wonderful time and I’m so thankful for such an awesome friend I could share this with. You guys deserve it and I can’t wait to meet your kiddos!
Looks like a lot of fun! Very cool to have such supportive friends / family. Hmmm…I totally would have lost the Ethiopia Trivia though.
HI to your sweet family. I happened upon your website while looking into other families’ experiences with AWOP. We have just started the adoption process (gathering everything for our home study). I had pretty much planned to work with a placement agency (CHSFS) to adopt two girls (between ages 2-6). Then I happened upon the waiting kids at AWOP. Michelle was so sweet to even email me info and pictures of 3 sets of little sisters that will be new to the list soon. I assumed that we couldn’t even think about these girls as we are not even beginning to put together the dossier. But them in reading your timeline, it looks like you weren’t either. If you feel led, would you mind emailing me to share your experience? Also, is it mandatory to attend AWOP’s program out in Wash. for older child adoption (I don’t know how that would be possible for us as we have 4 young bios)? Thanks so much – Julie Snell (juliesnell@picturehealth.net)
It was so much fun and I loved getting to gether with you guys, the blessing cards were so amazing!!
Love Kim
That Stacy and her family sure know how to throw a good party
It was a great time. I am so excited for the things to come!