Our Cramazing May, Episode V

I love this picture of my friend, Mindy. 

Almost three years ago, she walked down the aisle with her dad and met her groom, Brad.  It was a beautiful wedding, and I was honored to help with some of the details of the day. 

The next day, Brad and Mindy gathered at her parents' for the gift opening.  It was such a beautiful weekend!  The wedding was outside, and there were a thousand personal touches all around the place.

This spring, as we approached our travel date, Mindy and Brad, who are both flight attendants, wrote and let us know that they wanted specifically to help cover part of the cost of our plane tickets to India.  What a blessing they have been to us over the years!  They have prayed for us, cared for us, and now, they wanted to help with our adoption trip in a very tangible way.

So when I found out that the baby shower for Mindy's first baby, due next month, was on the day before we flew out to India, I was elated!  The shower was in my hometown, so I might very well not been able to go to it under normal circumstances.  But since Beth was staying with my parents and we needed to drop her off there anyway, we finalized our travel plans around being able to be there for the shower.  It was great to be able to celebrate with Mindy, who looked fabulous, by the way!  I've known Mindy my whole life, and I've never seen her looking so beautiful....she truly was "glowing"!

I love this picture of Mindy...she was a little caught off guard for the photo, but I still love it!

 Mindy reading over advice given by other moms...

 Trying on a hat that was knit for Baby Minnard...

 ...and isn't this the cutest sweather you've ever seen??!

Beth was very excited about her first baby shower!

 It was a red-head party!  The three youngest girls in the room all had matching hair....too cute!  :)

Mindy bravely let the little ones "help" her.  :)

 Thank you, Mindy and Brad, for being our friends and for blessing us again and again....we love you guys and are SO happy for you!  Come on, Baby Minnard, be born really soon! 
(If he/she is born in the next couple of weeks, I can go down to the hospital and see the new arrival, since they live about an hour from where we are now!)
What an added and unexpected blessing to be able to be celebrate their baby just as we were getting ready to go get our baby!  I will be meeting Mindy for brunch on Friday, and I'm looking forward to introducing her and Brad to Tom, either then or someday soon.