A SHOWER WITHOUT THE GUEST OF HONOR

Patricia called me on the phone on Friday morning, May 9th, and after her opening question "Are you busy running around?"(I was getting ready for her baby shower that night) all I heard were sobs and more sobs. My mother's heart froze as I questioned her and only got sobs as an answer. When she got her emotions under control she said she had just been to the doctor's office and her ultrasound showed she was losing amniotic fluid. The doctor said the baby was fine, but he wanted her to come back in on Monday for another exam and if she was still losing fluid, she would have a C-section. Well, that was unsettling news, but Patricia assured me she was all right and the doctor had okayed her coming for the shower. Coming for the shower? That didn't sound like a good idea to me. She hung up and my mind was whirling with questions, fears, anxieties and an attempt to trust God in all this. After more phone calls it was decided that Patricia shouldn't come to her own baby shower...

My next quandry was if I should go ahead with the shower...and after weighing the pros and cons and asking God what I should do, my conclusion was that we walk by faith (which, by the very word, suggests we aren't absolutely sure about what we're doing) so I did what I thought was the Lord guiding me...and I'm so glad I did. My shower preparations were a bit jerky, meaning I ran hither and thither trying to do many things at once. I tried making a marshmallow filling for the cake, for example, but the Portuguese recipe didn't explain things clearly so I looked at a similar recipe in English and discovered the right temperature for the syrup was 242º (can one get any more exact than that?) so I whipped out my candy thermometer and started watching the needle rise, but it stopped at a certain point and only moved up very, very slowly. Unfortunately, I started beating the egg whites too soon, so I turned off the beater and when my syrup was ready to pour into the egg whites, the egg whites had dissipated! And, the syrup had gone OVER 242º and turned a nice amber color! What to do? I started over on the egg whites and went with the burnt syrup (later adding vanilla and almond flavoring to hide the taste--it maybe helped a little.) I spread it on my cake and popped it into the freezer for a while. When it was time to serve, however, the sticky marmallow was so "firm" (putting it mildly) that it stuck to the serving knife and made the layers fall apart on the plate (ufdah! as we Norweigans say), but everyone liked it anyway!!

To summarize this too-long account, the party was lots of fun and everyone seemed to have a good time. We called Patricia by skype so everyone could greet her and she could thank those who came. A friend prayed for her and as she prayed, baby Julie gave her Mommy some hard kicks (I think she was telling her to get ready cuz she was coming!).

Only about three hours after the last guest left, Patricia was already at the hospital to have Julia. God knew she couldn't wait until Monday to have this baby. The doctor later said the baby was losing weight as well...but God was taking care of her and we praise Him for a healthy baby girl that was born at about 37 weeks.

Thank you, Lord, and welcome to our world, Julia! I love you.