Works of God, Love of Others

Seriously. The last six weeks of my life have been a big time work of God. As I sit here and look down at my beautiful son, I cannot help but praise God for all He has done. We went from losing Angel (that is what the birthmom named the little girl who was stillborn who would have been our daughter), to finding out about the potential for this little guy, to hearing that we had actually been chosen again, to the joy of seeing our little guy come into the world 10 days ahead of schedule (I think because he was anxious to get out and meet his mommy, but maybe I'm a little off in my thinking). :) He has been an absolute delight and we give God the glory for directing Jonathan into our home.

Often I will just sit and hold him and look down at his cute little face with amazement that God would entrust this little one to us. I cry now just as I did before him, but now I cry with a full heart, thankful for the sacrifice of his birthmom who chose a different life for him - who chose to put him in a family with both a Mommy and Daddy who would love him completely. Even when he is fussy (which really isn't that often), I remind myself that I would choose full arms of a temporarily fussy little guy than empty arms and a heart continually filled with ache and longing for the chance to be a Mommy. I praise God every day and thank Him for bringing Jonathan home to us.

Part of the way God has been blessing us is through friends from near and far, family, my volleyball players and friends from church. Last night the church had a baby shower for us and it was such a blessing. Here are some pictures for those who missed it and said they wanted to see pictures...

The room was decorated with a jungle theme since that is going to be the theme of Jonathan's nursery. The decorators did an awesome job and I loved it all!

I liked the wall decor and they actually took it down for me afterwards so I can put it up in his room. You might not be able to see from the pictures, but there were stuffed animals everywhere. My friend Julie is in the middle of this picture...she saved the night when halfway through the service I realized that I had forgotten to bring the thank you note envelopes (our church will often use those at a shower to instead of a guest book because then you already have all your thank you note envelopes addressed). Since Julie's little girl was a little loud in the service, she had to be out in the hallway anyway and she quickly ran to the store to hook me up. She rules.

This was the AMAZING cake that Erica's mom made for the shower. She has such a gift! I have had the privilege of seeing many of the cakes she has come up with and I'm always so impressed. I do have to say that this is my favorite of her cakes though - it fit the theme so perfectly.

Many of the pictures of me opening gifts ended up a little blurry or I didn't like how I looked in them, so I refused to put them up (okay, so I'm a little vain apparently - shocker).

All in all, the shower was such a big blessing and encouragement for us. Between this shower and the shower that my volleyball players threw for us, we are set on diapers for awhile. Jonathan also received many cute outfits which I'm sure you'll see in pictures to come. Thank you to those of you who played a big part in this night. It really was special and more than I ever expected it to be. The work behind-the-scenes is much appreciated. We are thankful for those who have poured out their love and support through this entire process. We know that God has worked through many of you to be a blessing to us.

One quick side note...I think I'm finding that I now do my best blogging at midnight. Scary.