About a month ago, my friend from church exclaimed to me, “Brittany and I want to throw you a shower!”
I was taken aback. I am pretty much the new girl at our church, and I felt equal parts blessed and overwhelmed that they wanted to throw a party for me. I had silly self-conscious thoughts like, “I’m the new girl. I don’t want people to feel obligated to come.” Or “But what if no one shows up?” Or “It’s my third baby… I don’t want people to think I’m greedy for gifts!”
But these thoughts were countered with more rational thoughts like, “Wow. What a great church we have joined that these new friends would want to throw a party on my behalf.” And “I love celebrating with other women. It would be so fun to gather all my California friends in the same room for a few hours.” And “It’s my third child, but every child is worth celebrating.”
I let my joyful thoughts overcome my doubtful ones, and we put a date on the calendar for March 25th. I insisted that we DON’T need gifts, but of course my generous and loving friends showed up with diapers and gift cards galore. Our baby is stocked with size 1 and 2 diapers, and if it’s a boy, he won’t have to be naked indefinitely because we got gift cards to fun clothing stores and even a few new outfits.
When I had my baby shower for Zianne, I remember looking around the room and feeling so abundantly blessed. We had been in Arizona for almost three years at that point, and I was overcome by the women who came to celebrate with me. It’s always hard to build community after moving, and at my shower I realized, “Wow! These are my friends – from church, from grad school, from blogging, from so many different places. God has given me an amazing group of women here.” It was the first moment I officially felt “settled” in Arizona and my heart overflowed with joy.
At this weekend’s shower I had a similar feeling. I wouldn’t say we feel settled in California yet, but this party reminded me that God has us here for a reason. He is weaving together our community by blossoming new relationships and reuniting me with friends of old. Women came from L.A. to San Diego to celebrate with me. I am so thankful God has given me such amazing women to support me. I am excited about my new job, our new church, and living in this new place because God is faithful to bring people into our lives to love us and spur us on. Today’s beautiful party was a sweet reminder of that truth.
