Blessed

At the first church where Luke served on staff, we used to end every Sunday morning service with the congregation reaching across the aisles, joining hands, and singing "The Family of God". The first line of the song proclaims, "I'm so glad I'm a part of the family of God...". It was such a sweet moment at the end of each service, and a reminder as to how blessed we are to be able to do life together with fellow believers. Since I have been on bed rest, I have not been able to go to church. Sunday mornings have been particularly lonely as I lay in bed watching Green Acres church service on TV. While I have been so thankful that I have the ability to "join in" via TV with another local congregation (and have found myself laughing out loud at their pastor's jokes), there is nothing like being in the presence of fellow believers.

All of that to say...Today was so refreshing. Our church family had a diaper pounding for us! It was great to fellowship with some amazing ladies. I was reminded once again how blessed we are to be surrounded by so many who are as anxious as we are to meet our little girl. She sure is loved! My mom came with us and took lots of great pictures...so here it goes...
We had to get a picture with all the yummy food!!
Isn't this cake awesome? We have had the cutest cakes at all of our showers (if I do say so myself)!Mom and I before everybody started to dig in.This quilt was made by the quilting group at our church for little Maddie...super special! There is a little pillow that matches it and a framed quilt square to hang on her wall. I will have to take another picture later so you can see it up close!Both this quilt and the one above are such labors of love!! I can't wait to lay this out for her to play on! Luke and I both still have our baby quilts, so I know these will be treasured for a long time!The next 2 pictures are diaper cakes that some talented ladies made for us!! I don't want to take them apart because they are too cute! (Some day I will have to tell you about my diaper cake failure...but we will save that for another day!)Now do you see why I don't want to take them apart??We are so thankful. Madelyn is one blessed little girl!

Speaking of Maddie...she is doing great! She moves all the time, seems to be growing (daily), and prefers the right side of my tummy over the left (or maybe she just likes to make her mommy look lopsided?). My heart rate has been steady in the low 120's but feels better when I stand up and move around. My blood pressure went back down to normal yesterday and has stayed that way! I am so thankful for that because it was making me feel tired. Can you believe that Madelyn will be home with us exactly 2 weeks from today? Only 12 days until the "big day"! AWESOME!

*Kathryn