Sunday, October 24, 2010

one very special momma.

first off, let me say THANK YOU for sharing in our joy regarding our EP submission. we are so grateful for your love and care for us and could not imagine enduring this wait without your support! we've still got a little ways to go, but, my goodness, your cheerleading is surely helping us persevere!

one of my friends IRL has been especially special to me during this entire process.

two years ago, when we were both in the thick of our infertility woes, tina and i got to know each other quite well as we shared honestly and openly in the way that only those who have traveled similar journeys can. the hubs and i became very close with tina and her hubs and leaned on each other and held each others' hands (the wives literally, the husbands figuratively) as we supported one another through different doctor's appointments and rough days. we were and are SO incredibly blessed by their friendship. we always say that our friendship with t&t is one of the best things that came out of this often grueling journey...the best thing being choi boy, of course!

tina and her hubs got pregnant through ivf earlier this year and she is due at the end of november. we are ECSTATIC for them! they are having a little boy and we are so excited to watch our sons grow up together. tina has always said that we might be bringing our boys home on the same day. and as much as i didn't want to believe it earlier on (because i was holdin' out for august or september, friends!), now that that is a very distinct possibilty, it is pretty darn cool. :)

we celebrated tina's bun in the oven on saturday and i was so honored to help host her shower. it was absolutely gorgeous, but i really can't take much credit for it. our friend, gloria, did an amazing job planning and coming up with the garden party theme, decor and menu and the rest of us were little worker bees.

look at this gorgeousness:
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i love the giant balloons :)

and a better shot of the spread in better lighting. look at the miniature candied apples we made! SO cute. a bit hard to eat, but SO cute.
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we had lots of floral centerpieces around the house and made these fun dessert kabobs as centerpieces, too.
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here was my one major contribution to the shower:
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the favors! my favorite kind of favors are edible ones, so i loved doing this.
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as i made about 21 dozen cookies (256 cookies, to be exact!), i realized the full potential of my beloved kitchenaid mixer. apparently, a quadruple batch of chocolate chip cookies is all it can handle. hello? 9 cups of flour, 6 cups of sugar, EIGHT sticks of margarine, 4 eggs, etc...phew! good job, mixer.

the shower was a beautiful way to honor a beautiful momma...but, my favorite favorite part was the excuse to make stuff for her little man. remember how i said i had one more name plaque in the works? tina said she read that and thought, "that better be for me!" heehee, i love her!

her little guy's room has a train theme, so i set to work making some choo-choo goodies!

i'm not the best drawer, but i can manage copying something if i have a really good image to look at. as i looked through different train images, i couldn't find one that i liked and then remembered this amazingness that christine created for a certain two-year old funnyman. it was *perfect* and christine was so sweet in letting me use it as inspiration.

here's the finished name plaque with choo-choo ala christine:
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(please don't judge me by my dirty windows. my mom judges me enough for all of you.)

i also made some bookplates:
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and painted some wooden train items that tina and i found at m*chael's.
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i loaded everything up into a basket with 10 of my favorite books and voilà, shower gift complete!
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tina, i love you, dear friend, and i am so very excited for you! it's been a long and hard road to this point for both of us, but i can't imagine traveling it without you. i am so excited for our happy endings and for the little boys that will soon fill our arms. you are going to be an amazing and awesome momma...i am so privileged to know you and call you my friend!
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29 comments:

  1. this is a wonderful post, grace! what an amazing friendship the 2 of you have. having a friend by your side through some of the hardest moments of life is truly a gift.

    your basket full of goodies is perfect! i love the ABC train!

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  2. How great that you and Tina have had similar journeys and became such good friends! It makes such a difference when you have an amazing friend to share ups and downs with. I love the favors you made, and the choo-choo sign is adorable!

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  3. What a beautiful friendship and a special bond you guys have! It's a lovely-looking shower and I LOVE what you made Grace - all of it :)

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  4. What a lovely shower, and how wonderful that you've had such a great friend to share this difficult journey with. How cool would it be to bring your boys home the same day?! You never know! Thanks for the comment on my blog, too!

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  5. Hi, wanted to introduce myself. I am K-A also, but married to an white boy. We were on the road to adopt from Korea, but taking a step back to rediscern. Lovely shower, you are so talented! Hope to keep in touch!

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  6. What a beautiful shower! And what a testimony to a great friendship!

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  7. I have a very similar story. I met my good friend Cherie at the IF clinic in 2007. We remained good friends and after a very grueling road she finally got pregnant. And yes, lo and behold, her daughter was born the day we came home from Korea. It still gives me chills. We always say 'were we destined to be friends or what?'

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  8. I have a very similar story, too! I have a friend who is due with her first child in January. We have longed to be mommies {together} for a long time and we're so excited to finally have our dream come true! Hopefully our sweet baby will be home around that time. Isn't it amazing how God gives you those special friends to come along side you to encourage and help during life's most difficult times? Oh, and by the way, I LOVE Grant's sign and the basket of books!! Girl, you are just too creative!!! :)

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  9. What a sweet story to always have as friends!! And equally sweet is that you both will have boys!! Love that! The train basket is awesome girl!! How did you not eat a bagillion of those yummy cookies you made? When I made cc cookies for the shower last month...I had to stop myself..I kept eating one here and there. They were mini..doesn't really count as one right?

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  10. Thank you SO much again for the lovely shower and the gifts--I LOVE the sign and the books!!! We are so blessed to have you in our lives!!! Can't wait to introduce the boys to each other!

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  11. Wow! The shower looked amazing, and I love the train themed gift. It truly is unbelievable how friendships can grow out of those kinds of situations!

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  12. its such a blessing to emerge from such a struggle with life-long friends and it will be wonderful for you to share motherhood together.

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  13. What a beautiful shower! And you are a great gift-giver (and apparently also a great cookie-baker)!

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  14. Beautiful shower! I think Sandra is strongly suggesting that you make cookies and we come eat them... ;)

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  15. Grace, love your story of how you and Tina met and remain good friends...I bet you both cannot wait to introduce your boys to one another!

    And the talent! Love all of the gifts...I think books make the best shower gift...and hand-made items, of course...Kindergarten-teacher hanwriting (i.e. {perfect}) and all!

    Sounds like a terrific shower ;0)

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  16. Everything looks beautiful! Great job!! That would be cool if you would bring your sons home at the same time!!!

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  17. Congratulations to both of you. I am so happy to see you can both continue together on a journey that started together. How amazing is that. Jen ICLW 85

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  18. Oh my.... I'm in serious love over here! What a fabulous party you gals threw! LOVE. LOVE. LOVE.

    And I *adore* all the goodies you made for Grant! I'm so inspired! LOVE. (And hey, thanks for the shout out... so unnecessary, but always appreciated!) And I LOVE how the sign came out!

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  19. BEAUTIFUL shower!!! Girl, that's a heckuva lot of cookies!
    Love the ABC train!
    And the fact that your mom "judges enough for all of us." Ha!

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  20. great shower
    great gifts
    great friend

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  21. Wow. I teared up just reading this. You are both so lucky to have each other. We need our friends to help us get through life, so it's always great when friends take time for each other and celebrate. And those are some mighty fine looking cookies you made.

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  22. such a beautiful shower! I love the cookie jars as favors....soooo cute! And what a great gift basket that you made too! :)

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  23. What a beautiful wonderful friendship you two share, it's evident how much you care for each other! Hope that you are both able to celebrate this Holiday season with your boys.

    ~ICLW

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  24. Wow! It would be super cool for you both to bring home your boys on the same day!! What an uplifting post! I would love to feature you both (individually of course) on your very different IF success stories!

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  25. Congrats to you (& your friend) on the soon to come home bringing of your little boys! The shower was beautiful!

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  26. What a beautiful shower and I LOVE the gift basket you made for your friend!

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  27. gorgeous decorations!

    i know how awesome it is to have a friend IRL who understands infertility too. i'm thankful for mine.

    sure do hope you guys get to welcome your babies together. xoxo

    p.s. great gift basket you!

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  28. Looks like a great shower. Beautiful decorations! I love the cookie jars -- the favors -- adorable AND yum! Your great is awesome...I love the train stuff! A friend of mine gave me a similar basket of her and her kids' favorite books. Many in there I'd never heard of...and now we love them too.

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  29. How wonderful! Those favours look delicious! I'm sure Grant will love the books!

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