Una Bienvenida

Tonight, I was privileged to host a bienvenida (welcoming party) for the newborn daughter of Hna. Guillermina.   Here in Mexico, a Baby Shower is a party given before the baby is born and a Bienvenda is a party given after the baby's birth.  So tonight, we celebrated the arrival of Abril Fernanda. :-)

Some people love to host/throw parties.  My mom was always soooo good at it!  She has so many ideas and loves to give.  Creativity is not one of my gifts, and I'd much rather be serving behind the scenes than in the center leading anything.  But as inadequate as I feel sometimes, I told the Lord a couple years ago that if He could use me in someway, I am willing.   I want to always be willing to give and serve.  So thankful for His strength!

So last week, I began to pray and plan.  My daughters were wonderful helps!  Timothy was great too as he is now driving and still in the stage where he LOVES to do errands for me. :-)    Daniel was wonderful (of course, he always is! :) ) in taking me to get decorations or whatever else I needed.  And while I don't have a lot of "extra" time, just doing a little bit each day,  most everything was ready by this morning.

Hna. Tola came over this morning to help me make Pozole while the children helped me clean and decorate.

After the little ones napped, Daniel took all 9 boys over to work with him at the church property and I went to pick up those ladies who needed a ride.

We had a full house and my prayer was we would all be a blessing to Guillermina, grow closer together as sisters in Christ, and above all, glorify our Lord.

We play several games and then I shared for about 15 minutes from God's Word.  There were a couple ladies there who I know have never come to know Christ as their Savior and what a joy to share the wonderful gospel message with them.

We then enjoyed a pozole dinner and of course, ( my favorite part) CAKE and COFFEE and watched Guille open her gifts.  It was such a fun evening!  

Of course, I won't mention the fact that our dog, who was shut up in Daniel's shop, somehow managed to open the door, escaped and began to fight another dog right under the table where the ladies were eating.  Nor how upon hearing the barking I looked out the window to see two of the ladies climbing on top of the table in a complete panic while the other ladies were grabbing little ones and running into the house.  Or how as I ran outside with a broom to do something (I didn't know what I was going to do but had to do something!), and finally getting our dog back into the shop (locking it with a key this time), I felt horrible!  But I will mention that thankfully nobody got hurt and suddenly, we were all laughing so hard about it,  we were crying and our sides hurt.  

So here, I share with you a few pictures of our evening.  And we'll be back soon to share something the Lord has placed on my husband's heart for some time that by God's grace, we'll be beginning on Tuesday.  

The Lord is so faithful and so good!

These first couple pics have nothing to do with the shower, but...
my baby is soooooo big!!

Nehemiah and Noah :-)  See the end of that chain in the background on the left side of the picture?
That's Nehemiah's birthday chain.  We made it last month.  When he still had 72 days until his birthday.
How did I get talked into that one?  Those smiles and pleading eyes do it every time!

Welcome beautiful Abril!

Game-  After seeing the tray for a minute, try to remember everything is on it.  

Another Game-  Guess how many marshmallows are in the bottle. The ladies did GREAT at this!  They were all sooooo close!  Do you have a guess?  I'll give the answer in a minute :) 

My turn to hold her!! :)

Oh, by the way, the answer is 89 :)
Anybody guess right?