Belly Bump and Baby Shower

I'm a little late on this post as well, but at least I'm getting it up, right? I have been so tired lately that every time I think I'm going to sit down and write out a post I end up taking a nap instead. I guess that will probably be the norm once the little guy gets here, so I should probably just get used to it and be thankful that I have the ability to take a nap, but right now I find it slightly annoying.

Alright, moving on. Here is my belly at 36 weeks. (I am currently 37 1/2, not that I'm counting down the days or anything. Only 18 more days!) JoAnn likes to be in the picture with me, but she doesn't like to smile for the picture, go figure.

I know I may not look too big, but my stomach feels like it is just about stretched to its limit. I never got anywhere close to being this big with Jo, so it seems strange to see me so big.

That picture was taken right before I went to a baby shower that some of the women here threw for me. I remember feeling a similar feeling when I was near the end of the pregnancy with JoAnn, but it makes me thankful to have some good friends around when I'm getting ready to have the baby. For some reason I have this minor fear of "What if something happens to me" and it's good to know that Daniel would have some great people around to help if anything really did happen. Anyway, it was fun to have a blue themed baby shower this time around. Last time everything was pink, so it was fun to have something a little different. I got some really cute little boy outfits, blankets and one of my favorite things to get as a gift...lots of diapers! I know that may sound crazy, but you go through so many when they are young and I hate buying them.

One of the fun things about showers here is we have one lady who loves to make cakes and is really creative and talented at making them. I stole these pictures from her blog, so thanks for the picture Val, but this first one is from my shower with JoAnn and one of my all time favorite cakes ever. The second one is the one we had this time and is also very cute, but even better is my favorite type of cake she makes. It is a chocolate cake with chocolate truffle icing. It was VERY yummy.


Anyway, I had a great time with the women and it made me all the more excited to meet the little dude.

One last thing to put up...
One of the benefits of living here is that labor is really cheap, so when I realized that I was having a boy and the only infant car seat I had had a big pink cover on it, I decided to get some fabric and have one made that was a little more boyish. This is the final result. I think it turned out pretty cute and was very happy.
As if it wasn't enough to be happy with the results, when I was pretty nervous about what I was going to end up with. I had asked the lady that works for us, Ida, to give the materials and directions to the seamstress for me since she would be able to explain it in Tagalog. After I got it back, there were a few minor alterations that needed to be done, so I was asked Ida to go back to the lady and ask her to change a few things. When she returned, Ida was telling me that she was able to talk to the lady about God and encourage her to start praying since she was not a Christian and works for an older single lady who is not known for being very kind. Ida explained that the lady mentioned something about how it must be very different to work for Americans than Filipinos and Ida explained that if she is unhappy about her work situation, she could pray that God would change the heart of the lady she works for to be nicer to others since He is able to change anyone . I couldn't believe it, as I become more pregnant, I have been getting harder on Ida since it seems like nothing is ever really clean here and I'm about to bring home a new born baby. This was a great reminder that I should be focusing on how thankful I am to have a neat Christian lady work for us, instead of all the other stuff. I have talked to this seamstress many times since her main employer lives in the same building as we do and many times she is outside walking her employer's dog when JoAnn and I are on walks. But I have never once been able to communicate more than figuring out what the dog's name is and in only talking to her 3 times Ida was able to find out that she isn't a Christian and able to share a little bit of the hope she could find in Christ. That just amazes me.