My Romanian Church Shower

The room before the ladies arrived.


The room filled with the ladies from church.

Me opening gifts--Good times!

A close up of the table decor.

The cute centerpieces Joanne made for the tables.

Me sitting and enjoying everything about the evening.

Me and mom---Whoa am I pregnant or what!?

Me holding Charlotte!

Shower number 2 took place on March 15th at the Romanian Baptist Church in La Habra (the church where Raresh and I met and where we got married). It was another successful shower with many many beautiful decorations, people, food, and presents. I hope you enjoy the few photos from that shower. Before anyone gets all crazy--the generous Romanians do these types of showers for all the brides and mommies to be so although it may seem like I'm a spoiled brat and had a crazy huge shower---just remember--so do the other gals at the church. Thank you to all who worked so hard to give me another special day! I feel very loved and I'm so glad that one day Charlotte will be able to see all these wonderful things that took place in honor of her.

My Work Baby Shower---

For a while now I have been anxiously waiting for my work shower to arrive and last Thursday March 13th it finally happened. I am truly blessed to have such amazing friends/co-workers that worked so hard to make the event a huge success. I just love parties. Here are a few photos from the lovely work shower that my close friends (Suzy, Janice, Toni, and Chris) threw for me. It was soooo much fun. The room was decorated so beautifully complete with centerpieces consisting of receiving blankets, a children's book, balloons, and little snacks in reusable tupperware. We played some fun games and then opened all of the many gifts. Little Charlotte got so many beautiful things and it was nice for my co-workers from all over campus to come and share in my special day. Thanks again everyone!

Daddy loves to hear mommy sing...

Charlotte,
Do you have any idea how many people already love you?! A LOT! Mommy is going to have 3 different baby showers just for you. We have the Romanian church one, the Cerritos work one, and the close friends one hosted by Auntie Rachel. It is so nice to have so many close friends share in this amazing experience as well as helping mommy and daddy out with some much needed baby items and gifts for you!

Well, in preparation for the Romanian church shower, mommy had to come up with some hymns to sing during the event to help the evening flow from one part to the next (very commom for a Romanian church shower). I figured I needed your daddy's input for this task. As we were going through the Romanian song book we have at home, I started singing the songs to your dad to remind him of which ones they were. We picked out 4 for the evening that truly are our favorites. Then out of the blue your daddy says to me, "I love listening to you sing!" How cute is that? Between you and me I think he's a little biased but it's still nice to hear that daddy thinks I'm talented in that way. Honestly, honey I hope you'll like mommy's voice. I've been singing to you for a while now and I'm not quite sure if you like the sound or if you're begging for me to stop. I guess we'll see when you get here. Daddy also reminded me that before we were married I sang to him once. (I can't believe I forgot I did that---I must have loved your daddy longer than I let on to let down my guard and sing to him.)
Just for the record and in case you ever wonder my favorite songs that I've been singing to you are:

• Be Thou My Vision (an Old Irish Hymn)
• In Christ Alone (a more popular one--Even the Newsboys have a version of that song) and
• Cand Isus Hristos ma Mantuit (my favorite Romanian hymn of all time!)

I'm sure one day, you'll hear these songs and you'll automatically love them because mommy has been singing them to you for so long. I can't wait to teach you these songs so you can sing them to daddy. If he loves my voice---he'll just melt when he hears yours!

I love you sweetie...8 more weeks to go!

Charlotte's Room

The nursery is 95% complete. The only things left to do are to hang up a few frames and pictures on the wall—stuff that will most likely occur when she’s here. Other than that it's pretty much set. I absolutely love her room. It is such a joy to sit in there and just imagine holding her and rocking her. As you can see, the room is so simple and classic—perfect for a little girl named Charlotte Jane.

This sign is above her door before you enter her room. It's funny---I told myself I don't want to call her my princess because she needs to understand from a very young age that we are normal people--not royalty but my friend Terry from work got this for her and I think it's very cute! So before you walk in to her room that's what you see.

A close up of her name on the wall with her little musical mobile.

Here is her crib and glider.

Her little changing table and some wall decor. This is the wall I plan to hang more items on. As you can see her wall art and frames are not up yet. In due time.

Raresh and I feel so absolutely blessed at this moment in our lives. We are surrounded by so much love and support from family, friends and co-workers. It's just unreal. The Lord is just amazing. He has always provided for us and we are truly speechless in how we can say thanks.

Your daddy is the best...

Charlotte,
I just need to tell you how absolutely wonderful your daddy is. I know I've mentioned how supportive he's been in blogs before but I need to write another entry to express to you how absolutely special he is making this experience for me. Daddy wasn't feeling well the last couple of days and luckily he had some time off from work. Well, mommy has to wake up super early to get to work by 7am. Monday morning as I was getting ready I notice that the light is on downstairs. I figured daddy must have woke up because of his coughing or my blow dryer and was going to try and fall back asleep watching TV downstairs. When I went downstairs he had made me the best breakfast EVER!!! It was a terrific omelet with my favorite avocados! I just couldn't believe that even on his day off, feeling very sick, he woke up to make sure I had a good breakfast. That is just a smidgen of what he's been doing for mommy and for you these last couple of weeks. He's been so great about making dinner, running errands, cleaning the garage, assembling your nursery furniture, and pretty much anything else I ask him to do. My sweet Raresh, thank you so much for being the most wonderful, loving and supportive husband on this planet. You will be the best dad ever!!!---Charlotte, on days you get annoyed with daddy's rules--remember this stuff. If he's this good to me...no doubt he'll be really good to you! Love you both!