The Second Baby Shower

The week before my Mom arrived, I was told that a baby shower was being planned for me for the following Sunday. I was so excited, and even more so that Mom would be here! (Keep in mind I knew nothing of baby showers #1 and 3.)

Sunday, September 29 (which turned out to be exactly two weeks before baby showed up)

 

  

With the wonderful hostesses

 

 

Joanna Murrin is a long time missionary friend from church. I've especially appreciated listening to Joanna talk about her four pregnancies. It's been helpful to know that what I've experienced is normal! (We also greatly appreciated the two meals she brought two days after the baby was born.)

 

Doctora Aida Baldelomar de Wallace is another friend from Cochabamba International Church, AND my OB/GYN during the pregnancy. She's the doctor of all of my missionary friends and she and her husband own a clinic here in Cochabamba. Her husband did the sonogram where we realized we were having a girl! Dra. Aida hosted the baby shower in her beautiful home not far from ours. 

 

 

Jennifer & Glenda

 



Beautiful cakes!

 



 

Jennifer with the "under 20" group (including a student of Jake's and youth group kids)

 



Enjoying the amazing spread of food 

Love this "garden room" we were in (we moved inside due to gusting winds outside)

 The ladies wrote notes of advice to be included in a notebook

Only one lady came even close to guessing my belly size!

 

Joanna Murrin gave a devotional about mothers in English and Anita Paz translated into Spanish. Pati had a couple of games that could be played while continuing to chat. It was a full afternoon!

 

The gift stash!

We filled up my car afterwards with the gifts and leftover cake. What a blessing to have so many people excited about our new addition!!

The First Baby Shower (Surprise!)

And getting back to regularly scheduled programming... The Baby Shower picture posts I promised before Sophia made her early entrance! :)


We've wanted to have a volunteer fellowship for a while now, and I hoped that we would be able to coordinate one while my Mom was here so that she could have some time with the Booher family and our current volunteers.

So on Saturday, September 28, after a full day shopping in La Cancha for furniture for the condo, we headed out to CDA IV and the Booher family for what I thought was a regular ol' volunteer fellowship.

I walked in, saw "baby girl" streamers, and SURPRISE!! Wow, what sneaky friends I have. They had planned a BABY SHOWER!!

Casa de Amor Volunteers and Visitors, some of the Booher kids, and a CDA IV baby

Elena Alvarez (volunteer coordinator) and Carla Booher (CDA IV Mother)

I imagine that these two ladies were the masterminds behind everything! They did an amazing job! And even though some found it hard to believe, YES I was surprised!!

Jake's turn to, uh... "Pin the baby on the mother"??

They had a few fun games planned. One interesting one was seeing what baby names people came up with using only the letters from mine and Jakes' first and middle names. Almost everyone found "Fernanda", a common name here.

The food was WONDERFUL!! Love how the Boohers tinted the icing of their famous cinnamon rolls pink using beet juice.

Opening gifts - the first diapers!!

I told Jake it was pretty surreal to have a baby shower for me and my baby, after attending so many for others. What a fun evening with great people!

Five Days New and Cuter Than Ever!

Tonight we had a wonderful hour of wakefulness that did not include crying. Learning to transition from eating to sleeping to being awake (but not yet eating) and all over again has been, shall we say, a bit of a process! Baby Sophia is not quite as laid back as my Bolivian babies. :)

I grabbed a camera for pictures, realizing that we'd fulfill Grandma T's special request of a picture of her granddaughter with her eyes OPEN and no HAT! Now see if you can handle this cuteness...

Special Visitors

We have had a steady stream of visitors since Sophia was born. I've been grateful for the company while I've been home bound. I'm pretty sure this is the longest I've gone in my life without stepping outside, but I'm also cherishing the quiet time at home with baby!

This afternoon some tias and volunteers brought the oldest boys and girls to our place to meet the much-awaited baby.

First, the eight boys blasted in the door like a herd of wild buffalo!!

The three boys immediately grouped around her. What a moment!! (The tias - knowing of the pending adoption - were loudly whispering to me, "Take their picture, take their picture!!", haha.)

After picturing the three boys with their baby sister for months now, here they are!!

 

As the pictures show, the oldest at least were remarkably interested in the baby but after a few minutes, the search for Rusty (the cat) was on! The boys were all over the place, enjoying the outing.

The tias enjoyed the baby after that. :)

 Tia Sarin and Sophia

Then the boys and girls switched out, and six girls trooped in quiet as mice! Upon seeing me and the baby, they paused respectfully in the doorway, just staring - a completely different entrance than the boys!!

Diaper change during the girl's visit - they were curious about the umbilical cord stump!

The baby also held their attention much longer as they vied to hold her and take in every little feature.

(See Grandma B in the background? She arrived from Washington State two days after the baby!) 

Jhosie declared in awe that the baby had hairy arms just like her dad!

Abigail asked if the baby was going to learn to speak English.

They asked if they could take off her socks and see her little feet. We decided they were dry and I went for the lotion, first time to use it.

They also wanted to see the baby's crib.

Sophia did great with all the attention! She is one loved little baby.

My favorite questions of the day: "Tia, if the baby is out, why are you still gordita?" (a little fat) Jake said my organs needed to find their place again, an answer that was met with blank stares!

...and from Ana Maria, "Tia, are you going to have another baby?" I repeated the question back, not sure what she meant. "Yes, another baby, on my birthday?" Then I realized! I had told her, even the last time I saw her, that the baby might be born around her birthday (October 27). So today I tried to explain that this was the baby I was talking about and she's already here! We'll have to wait a bit for another. :)

She's Here!!!

Our precious baby has arrived!

 

 

Sophia Katherine Beaty

Sophia: "wisdom"

Katherine: "pure"


Sunday, October 13, 2013 at 4:55pm

Weight: 6 pounds, 9.7 ounces

Length: 20 inches

First picture with daddy

First family picture a few hours after birth



"To your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness."
Psalm 115:1 

Preparation of our Condo

The minute we decided to stay in our current place, at least for the next few months, we had a big list of improvements to make! It's been great to finally get books off the floor, some shelves hung, and - my personal favorite - our work off the dining room table and onto real DESKS!!

Since moving in last year, we had just one real bookshelf, so our books were stacked around the floors and walls.

  

It was great to get them off the floor and onto these cute little book shelves!

Our desks!! 

It's so wonderful to have a place to put papers and books, and not have to clear off the dining room table every time we eat.

Love these little flowers we got at the market last Saturday.

Speaking of flowers... Jake is quite the florist! He worked on these two arrangements for our table.

Because of the desks, we moved the table to this window "nook". That really opened up our dining room floor, one of my favorite changes!

Jake making pancakes

See the shelf with our spices and bread bin? We had a carpenter make the shelf to Jake's measurements and then Jake put it up for us. More counter space = ALWAYS helpful!

Another kitchen shelf that Jake hung up for me.

While Mom was here, we saw this bedspread set that Jake really liked. She bought it for us and now we have a real bedspread for the first time! (The ones I brought from the Baby Home were all stained by babies and years of usage.)

"Jesus is Lord, Beaty Family"

We even have a new good place for keys right by the front door, thanks to a cheap purchase in the max security prison.

So that's a little tour of our "new" place! We have been blessed! It's a little tight and will for sure "close in" on us a bit when all the kids arrive, but it's home for now. :)

Next up: Baby Shower pictures!

 

Preparation for the Baby!

It has been lots of fun getting out all of the baby's stuff and begin to sort and organize everything! There will be more when Jake's Mom arrives next week but we made a head start taking tags off and washing while my Mom was here. (This baby is BLESSED in the clothes department!!)

Mom worked until midnight the night before her trip sewing these beautiful, soft sheets for the crib! The quilt in the picture was Jake's as a baby. :) 

Mom decided the baby needed a mobile and we finally decided on this one. There aren't very good options here. The best we've had at the Baby Home have been hand made by the tias!

There were probably 4 or 5 loads of baby clothes?! The tiny socks got stuck in the front of my washer, so for future washes I'll need to put them inside something first.

Clothes were drying all over the place!!

Jake was thrilled...

The shelf that Jake and I bought from missionaries departing in June, sanded down, and re-varnished, is now being put to good use for all of baby's things in our room!

Mom recycled this ribbon, received in a baby shower gift, for hair bows!

I told Jake that I needed one rod to hang clothes, so he told me to find a bathroom towel bar. I found this one downtown and voila, Jake hung it in this cabinet in our closet! 

 

We also got a cherry red car seat that will soon be installed in my car! No stroller for now - I'll use baby slings and carriers at first.

 

All we lack now is the baby. :)