May 13th

Aside from the awesome, life-changing promise of a daughter, May 13th held a baby shower unlike any I have attended, let alone as the honored guest.

There were pink balloons above a table of salads on a white eyelet tablecloth.

Women love salads.  When we gather for a meal without men, we relish the opportunity to eat the largely-detested-by-men combinations of raw vegetables, dried fruits, crunchy bits of onion, cold meat, and nuts.  Add a tray of chocolate chip cookies and you've got a roomful of happy ladies.

There was a table of boxes and bags dressed sweetly in pinks, purples, and teals, resulting in a pile of girly loot and a thousand utterances of "cuuuuute."

 

There was me, wearing pink for the first time at a baby shower for one of my babies, with my maternal grandmother's crystal around my neck.

But the very best thing about this shower was the unified heart these women have for my little girl.  The anticipated child is not in my belly.  There was no talk of contractions or swollen feet.  No one measure my girth with toilet paper.  Instead, we talked of a toddler who is playing, even as I write, with beat-up toys on a concrete play yard alongside dozens of peers in diapered butts and shaved heads.  Instead of games, we prayed.  With Jubilee's picture projected on the wall, my friends tearfully covered her and Daniel and I and the boys and the years ahead of us with prayer.  

I treasured up the prayers that were said.  Some of them were:

-A smooth and quick completion of the adoption process.

-That all the paperwork that will be mailed back and forth between the U.S. and China in the next 3 months will not be lost or delayed.

-Peaceful and patient hearts for Daniel and me as we wait to bring our little girl home.

-G0D to prepare us to receive Jubilee into our family; Daniel to be the father and protector of a little girl; me to be a nurturer, confidant, and counselor to her; Bright, Zion, and Brave to be loving big brothers.

-Jubilee's last few months at the orphanage, that she will be well cared-for, that she will stay healthy, and that G0D will begin preparing her heart to join our family.

-A quick and smooth transition as Jubilee bonds with us and grows comfortable in her new home.

-G0D to bring a supernatural peace to her birth family, that they would somehow know in their hearts that she is happy and well and being raised in a loving home, and that they would come to know CHR1ST as their savior.

Amen, and please pass the tissues!