Nesting

I had read and heard from other women that "nesting" is a common behavior of pregnant women, but I was feeling a little nervous that I have not been doing anything that resembled nesting. I knew that I needed to start getting ready for Maya, but I had zero motivation to do any of the big projects I want to finish before she comes (like finishing the curtains in the office/new guest room). But, as soon as we had our baby shower and I knew we had all kinds of adorable baby clothes coming our way, I was inspired. First, I spent the better part of a day cleaning out the armoire in Maya's soon to be room as well as the dresser that will become her changing table (and finding a new home for all of that stuff!). So then the armoire was ready for all her cute little bitty clothes but I was unsure about how I would find baby hangers to hang everything on. If I lived in America, I would hop in the car and head to WalMart. Sometimes around here the most simple WalMart kind of item can be rather elusive and I was expecting to find that to be the case with the baby hangers. My plan was to go the "The 500 Store". This is kind of like the dollar store, but the day that I went there, they were mysteriously closed. On a whim I thought that a grocery store near the 500 Store might have hangers, so Matt and I went in , (me trying not to be too hopeful, so as not to be disappointed if there werent' any), but to my delight, we found these:

They only had a few bundles of five, so we bought all the baby hangers they had and for some strange reason, I was SO excited about these hangers! When we got home I hung them all up in the armoire and felt much more prepared for motherhood somehow. Then a group of visitors arrived bearing multiple suitcases full of adorable things for Maya from the shower that we just had. Bedding, clothes, hair bows, blankets, shoes and more! This girl could open her own boutique already!

And then Matt investigated what the uses were for several of the items we received:

What is a bottle brush for?

Why does she need a personal grooming kit?
Oh, now I see!

After doing mountains of pink laundry for the past few days (it was fun to wash such cute little things!) I decided today that I would clean all of the windows in our house, both inside and out. I don't know what came over me. They haven't been cleaned in a LONG time. Living on the 8th floor, this is no small (or always safe) task. It didn't exactly get done, and let me just show you why:

the door/windows in our bedroom

Windows in Maya's room . . .

And in the office/guest room

and the balcony door in the office/guest room

doors from the kitchen to the pantry/laundry room/storage room . . .

windows in the actual pantry/laundry room

sliding doors to the balcony from the dining room
sliding doors to the balcony from the living room . . .

and finally the living room windows.

So basically, I managed to wash the windows in the office/guest room, Maya's room, and the outside of our room. And then I was so tired I laid down on the living room floor and went to sleep. No wonder I have never tried this all at once before. This is a case of nesting gone wrong. Incidentally I have taken at least 2 more naps since then (as in 2 more naps all in the same day). I didn't even get 50% done! I should have gone to find more hangers instead!

She is Growing . . . 28 weeks!

SHOWERED WITH LOVE!

Today we had the most unlikely baby shower! Our good friends Alan and Amy, along with a whole host of wonderful people from Faith Memorial Baptist church gave us a baby shower for Maya Grace--via Skype! I looked up the definition of shower, and here are some of the meanings: to bestow liberally or lavishly, to deluge a person with gifts, favors, etc., to bathe in, to rain in a shower. That is exactly what this group of believers did for us. They LIBERALLY and LAVISHLY deluged us with gifts and with their love.

Getting set up for the arrival of a new baby is a very expensive and kind of daunting task here, and to be honest, after looking in a few stores at some baby items, I had become quite discouraged about the whole thing (and this is coming from a girl who loves to shop!). But Jesus is so faithful and so kind that through our friends Alan and Amy, He inspired this fellowship of people that we have never even met, to reach out to us as the Body of Christ and literally, shower us with blessings, with love, and with their support. This child will now certainly be the cutest dressed baby in the country!! And, Maya now has more aunties and grandmas than she will be able to count for many years!

It has been so hard to be away from our families for this long (it's been well over two years since we've seen many of our immediate family members) but we have also seen Jesus words' become so real to us when He promises: "and everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake, will receive a hundred times as much . . . (matt. 19.29). We are so humbled by the way this church chose to sacrificially give in order to love and bless us, and we're so moved that our Heavenly Father cares enough about our needs to meet them in such an extravagant and unlikely way--and not only to meet our needs, but to bless us with so much more than we could ask or imagine.

Faith Memorial, we can't wait to meet you all in person, and we thank you so much for counting us part of your family and loving us in this way! Alan and Amy, thank you for being the catalyst for this outpouring of love, and for your continued love and support. Words are not enough and it sounds so trite, but words are the best we can do, and so again, we say--thank you.

it was so cute how they displayed all of the gifts in the crib!

our wonderful hostesses for the shower

they projected their laptop screen so everyone could see us