Crawfish Boils and Baby Showers

Jun 7

Hey Girly Pops!

This past weekend, I had the honor of being a co-host for my good friends, KK and Nathan’s, baby shower- or as we have been calling it, Kk’s ‘Baby Boil.’

Now before you get too shocked by the nickname, this baby shower was centered around the fact we had a crawfish boil, as that has been her biggest pregnancy craving so far. And wow, was it the best.

To KK and Nathan, I am so proud of the parents you have become, and I cannot wait to see how y’all continue to blossom as you welcome your second baby boy into the world!

Hosting has always been a form of how I show love, and getting to host for my friends is one of the most rewarding, selfless things which I adore. I love the preparation which goes into it- picking out the theme and décor to go along with the said theme, creating a party list (and thinking of how the different crowds will merge), getting to surprise people with how over the top I love to be, and the thing I love the most about hosting, is seeing all of my favorite people gathered in one space, all with sparkling eyes and huge smiles across their face. The fellowship involved in hosting truly just makes my heart warm.

However, this shower would not have happened with the hard work of the other hosts, as well, and for them, I am so grateful. I have found sharing the load with others makes it a lot less stressful (but party planning stress is a stress I’d pick for the people I love every day). As someone who is not a fan of crawfish, I wouldn’t have even begun to know where to begin. Karli truly did her big one by doing a majority of the planning for this baby shower, including providing a place to do it, cooking the crawfish, getting chairs, creating the invites, and so much more which goes behind the scenes.

Because I have been feeling very extra here lately, I decided to put my questionable arts and crafts skills to use and create a diaper cake for KK (as pictured above). I surprised myself with the outcome in all honesty, all thanks to Walmart for having the cutest ribbon section and for Karli lending me one of my favorite tools ever- the hot glue gun. As someone who loves arts and crafts but has never had quite the perfect touch for it, anytime I get to create and actually enjoy the outcome, I am livid with joy. While God may not have given me the natural skill of art, he gave me the will to try it anyways. I couldn’t be more grateful to have a happy excuse to create, have fun with it, and it actually mean something. I felt like the diaper cake was the perfect last touch to all the crawfish themed décor. If I do say so myself, it was the cutest baby shower I have ever seen!

As all baby showers do, we played games, made our guesses on the baby boy’s birth weight, brought diapers for the expectant parents, and joined in community to simply celebrate and rejoice in the gift of a new life. God truly shows up to me in moments like these. So many smiling faces, all happy that a new life will enter this world in just a few shorts weeks.

At the end, once everyone had left and clean up had been done, our friend group was not prepared to stop hanging out. As we have gotten older, it’s harder to find time that everyone is able to get together and hang out, so we try to take advantage of the times which we do get together. So, with one cooler full of crawfish and another full of daiquiris, the gang loaded up and went to swim at our friend’s pool. Even despite the fact a couple of rain showers passed through, we hopped in and continued spending quality time together as friends. It definitely was a great end of an eventful day (and I know KK enjoyed the pool, giving an ease of weight off her back LOL).

Situations like these also give me another reason to pray. I am the type to spiral when I start to pray- and for this situation it went a little like this: I pray for a happy healthy baby that will know His name. I pray for my friends as they bring their second child to the world, that they remember to keep God at the center of their relationship. I pray for my other friends as I know many of them want to get to the point of being ready to have a child, or getting married, or simply want to be a part of something bigger like this. I then pray for those who so desire to have a child but simply aren’t able to. I pray for the children that weren’t born in such a perfect situation. And at the end of it, I remember to pray for myself- because I too wish to find the perfect husband, start the perfect family, and share the gospel alongside my people. I know at the end of the day, though, that everything work’s out all in God’s plan- even if it is not the way we anticipate it to.

Who would’ve thought a baby shower could send me down a rabbit hole of praying for so many different people? That’s just the power of prayer, the power of God.

So, to my readers, this is a sign to enjoy your life. Enjoy the mundane. Host for your friends and rejoice in all the happy faces. Even if something may not be a God centered event, He is always there rejoicing with you. And for that, I am thankful.

Here’s to doing things that are selfless to see the bigger picture.

Bye Girly (& Guy) Pops!

Jess C