I should have known something was up when Dear Husband called to see how I was feeling on Wednesday afternoon. Don't get me wrong, he regularly calls me to say "hi" but he doesn't usually call me at my hair appointments to ask how I'm feeling. Anyway, since Baby G "dropped" on Tuesday, I was feeling a lot better on Wednesday. Until the contractions started. So I called him back an hour later to inform him that my contractions had started back up and were every 15 minutes apart. He told me to pack a bag and agreed to meet me at church 3 hrs later. This seemed like an odd response, but I was a little too distracted to argue.
Anyway, I eventually made it to our Wednesday Bible study at church and was running late thanks to the fact that my youngest child took a really long nap. I noticed that my pastor's wife was waiting for me in the toddler drop-off room, but since she has a toddler I didn't think much of it. But when we headed upstairs, I was in for a big surprise!
Our sweet friends at church threw me a surprise baby shower! There was food, an amazing homemade cake, a fancy diaper cake, balloons (despite a local helium shortage), paper flowers, and a box full of goodies and gift cards. It was so much fun and really special to get to enjoy the experience with Dear Husband who has never experienced a baby shower. We were overwhelmed by the kindness of our church family.
It's amazing to think that it was about this time a year ago that we were given an ultimatum by our former church leadership--either plan on helping the church move to west Texas or find a new church. I remember being in shock and being depressed during the entire holiday season wondering if we would ever find a new church "home," let alone find new church friends whom we could trust.
Wednesday night was a great reminder that God can use those bad experiences in our lives to lead us to a new place for ministry and fellowship. I'm so thankful for our new church family. Baby G already has so many people who love and care about her. It's really exciting to bring a new life into this world knowing that she's surrounded by all this love!
Tomorrow we're at 36 weeks! It won't be long now...
Wow! I had forgotten about that ultimatum. It was a year ago, wasn't it? We had just left Bass Hall when you called.
ReplyDeleteGod is so good! Such an ugly situation to turn to a fantastic experience at a new church. Your new fellowship truly emulates biblical teaching of the local church. I love what the boys are learning, and this shower of love blessed our hearts, too! We are so happy for you!