Love is Patient: Showered With Love

On December 10th we got to have a baby shower for precious Jansen Hadley Jordan!!! This little girl has already been showered with so much love and prayer...but every little girl and her momma deserves a fabulous baby shower to celebrate the arrival of her birth! When we first started talking about the baby shower, Bria said she just wanted something super low key. In fact, she said that she just wanted it to be like a girl's night...where we all just get together, hang out, eat, talk, and have a few girly cocktails! All of us hostesses agreed that this would be a super fun way to shower Bria and Jansen and for us all to get together on a Saturday night and spend time together.

When we first started talking about dates, food, invitations, and all the other fun stuff that goes along with baby showers...we all had so many fun ideas and couldn't wait to start planning, shopping, cooking, and decorating. There were four girls hosting the shower; me, Britain, Leah, and Erica. One weeknight, we had a little meeting at Starbuck's to talk about what we were each going to bring, buy, and cook for the shower. Then, we spent one Saturday afternoon getting the invitations and the presents from all of us hostesses. Then we just called, emailed, and texted back and forth on whatever else was going on up until the shower. We really all had so much fun putting this together for Bria and we couldn't wait for the day of the shower so we could all be together and celebrate her and her precious baby girl.

During the summer (I'm back-tracking a little), Britain had an amazing idea to get letters from all of Brent and Bria's family and friends from home, they would write them to Jansen and Brent and Bria. When she told me about the idea, I was so excited and was totally in on getting all of our Abilene friends and other friends from college to write letters to this precious growing family. The plan was for them to write these letters on standard scrapbook paper and we would compile all the letters into a three ring binder and give it to Bria on the day of her shower. Britain did such an amazing job of putting everything together and that book was overflowing with love, stories, memories, prayers, etc. to Jansen and her precious parents. They were funny, tear jerking, sweet, exciting, and you could just hear people's words come to life as we all await the arrival of this little one. She has been prayed for and loved since the moment we found out Bria was pregnant in May. They have been through so much and I know they are so excited and anxious for Jansen to be here.

So, the day of the shower gets here and it was so much fun getting ready for the day! We had the shower at our house, so it was fun getting the house ready for all the girls. Everyone brought their own little girly drink to share so that we could all taste everyoneelse's favorite cocktail. We had chicken salad, mini sandwiches, fruit and dip, veggies and dip, hummus, a cheese ball, and spinach dip with crackers, Brie 'en Croute with crackers, mini chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting, mini fruit turnovers, mini Lofthouse cookies, and mini brownie bites. And...it was all SO amazingly delicious! Everyone ate and sat around and talked for a long time before we decided it was time to play a game so that Bria could start opening her presents. Erica and Leah had asked Brent a bunch of questions about having a new baby in the house. Things like: who would get up in the middle of the night, who would change the diapers, what Jansen would wear, and so much more! Bria had to answer the questions and whenever their answers matched up, she got to open a present. It was so much fun hearing what they each had to say, especially when they're answers were different! But, they were pretty spot on with most of their answers. So, Bria got to open up all her fun presents about the time we were done with the questions. After that, we spent the rest of the night sitting around the living room and the kitchen just talking and spending some much needed girl time together. The boys were off hunting, going spot-lighting for hogs in fact while we were at the house. They all walked through the door around 1:30 in the morning and there were still 5 of still sitting in the living room talking! When they got there, we sort of started saying goodbye...but we always have so many things to talk about and love spending time together...so we stood in the kitchen for another 30 minutes and talked some more! We are so blessed to have friends that we truly consider our family. What's even more amazing is the fact that we are welcoming more and more members to our little family with all these precious babies! Brent and Bria are expecting their precious bundle of joy on February 4th...and it will be here in the blink of an eye!!! Jansen Hadley...we are SO excited for you to come into this world. You are truly blessed to have an amazing mommy and daddy that love you more than life. They are amazing Christian people and will give you the best example and all the love you could possibly imagine. Jansen, you have been prayed for and loved more than you will ever know...we love you soo much!!!