Last night our new church family threw Hannah and I a baby shower. I must confess I was felt a little strange going to my baby shower thrown by women I have just met and some I have never met until last night. I was overwhelmed with feeling homesick but I was also so grateful and humbled that this new group of sisters would desire to shower us with love.
Hannah and I had so much fun. Granted she slept through almost the entire party but it was a perfect time for everyone to get a chance to hold her. First we introduced ourselves to one another, and told what we liked best about fall. I said I like that things are back on a schedule. I love the freedom in summer but I love structure more. Then we ate some amazing food.
After we ate we all gathered around and I was introduced to their baby shower tradition, and what a beautiful tradition it is. For each new baby born a little book is made for them. In the book their name is spelled out, first middle and last. Then for each letter a quality, or character trait that you would desire for your child is given with a scripture verse to go with it. The pages were handed out to the women and they were then offered back to the Lord in prayer.Here are are the ones that spell out Hannah...but they did her whole name Hannah Elizabeth Pellerin
H is for Heart After God
Lord please instill in Hannah a soul with a craving for You, a heart that clings passionately to you (Psalm 63:8)
A is for the All-sufficiency of God
Lord Help Hannah to know the Lord said..." I am God Almighty (all sufficient God), walk before me and be blameless..."(Genesis 17:1) Help her to accept Jesus at an early age and understand and experience God's sufficiency to meet her every need. Help her parents understand this as well so they can be an example to her of trust and reliance upon God
N is for nonconformity. Help Hannah to be discerning and avoid deceptive philosophy (Colossians 2:8)
N is for new. Help the Pellerins to remember that "your mercies are new every morning" (Lamentations 3:22-23) and that You never rut of the resources that are needed to live and walk the Christian life and parenting. Help them both to keep running to you for every thing they need as parents. Help Hannah to learn this as well. And to know she doesn't have to be perfect but to keep running to you for everything she needs.
A is for attitude. I pray you will help Hannah develop a Christ like attitude (Philippians 2:5-11) Help her to confess and forsake bad attitudes when they rise up in her. I pray Colossians 3:12 for Hannah "As one of God's chosen people Hannah You are holy and dearly loved, clothe Hannah with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and Patience" I pray she will begin early to have your attitudes and correct her bad attitudes. Help her parents to daily put on these clothes as well so they can be living models to Hannah. Give them strength and the daily filling of the Holy Spirit to overflowing.
H is for humility. Lord I pray that Hannah will have humility and willingness to submit to You and obey her parents and all in authority who you have placed over her. (Ephesians 4:2,Deuteronomy 13:4 1 Chronicles 29:19)
It was such a beautiful time of prayer. I was overcome with emotions. I was so thankful to be in the presence of the Lord with these beautiful sisters, but I was also sad because I missed my family and friends in Maine and so longed for them to be there with me to share in this awesome time. I so badly want them to meet and to know Hannah. But then I felt so blessed that Hannah will be surrounded by such godly women here where we are now. Oh the emotions of a post pregnant lady.
Then it was gift time. WOW, these girls went all out. Hannah got so many wonderful things. So many clothes, seriously I don't think there will be a little girl in all of Washington who will be dressed as cute as Hannah. I can't wait for her to wear each and every outfit. I got gifts from women I hadn't even met yet but I was reminded that the Love of Christ is not like the love of the world. His love has no preconditions, you don't earn His love. And these ladies showed that abundantly by blessing me, someone they didn't know but just wanted to show His love to. It was such a tangible expression of the Lord it made me feel closer to Him.
I am blessed....and humbled.
The table of food. Yum!
The start of prayer over Hannah
All the gifts and friends
Cute cute cute!
More cuteness
Her bathing suit for next summer. I can't take it! Adorable.
We learned this week that Uranus rotates differently than all the other planets. It rotates on its side. So if you put an imaginary pole though all the other planets on their axis the pole would be up and down, but for Uranus it would be side to side. To demonstrate this we took a ping pong ball and colored half blue. Then the kids took turns rolling it on it's "axis" to see how Uranus rotates differently than all the other planets. (wow look at my table, every time I see it in a picture I think that's awful but it's well loved and used everyday for the past 5 years)
We also studied about Neptune the "blue planet"It's atmosphere is made up of hydrogen, helium and methane. It absorbs the red light from the methane but reflects the blue light from the sun back into space. We did our own reflecting of light by taking three glasses of water and food coloring. One clear glass, one red glass and one blue. Then with a flashlight reflected the color onto a piece of paper.
Continuing our fall unit (still not done by the way) We learned about Johnny Appleseed. If you have never read the legend you should but I think more importantly the truth behind the legend. His name was John Chapman. And what we found to be the best part of his life was that he was a man of God who not only shared fruit of God's world but also the fruit of God's word. We read the book below which was a poem about Johnny Appleseed and in the back had the real story of John Chapman. I highly recommend this little gem of a book. And of course we had to make something with apples so we made apple cookies. I love these, I got the recipe from Isaiah's Saxon Math book last year and they taste like mini apple pies to me.
We brought the apple cookies to a "Bionicle Party". The homeschoolers that meet at "Park Day" started a Bionicle club, which my boys had to join. And this week they put together a party to watch the new Bionicle movie. They raised money over the summer at park day by selling drinks. With the money they rented the movie and provided snacks. The boys had a blast. The moms had tea/coffee and pecan tarts in the kitchen and gabbed away. It was nice to get out of the house and talk to some other homeschool moms.
And of course your weekly Hannah cuteness. Here she is (5 weeks) in her bassinet which I am sad to say she won't be in much longer. I am very proud of her chubby little legs. She is a great nurser and growing stronger and healthier every day. 
