I received a renewed confirmation of my giftings last night, and remembered I don’t have a leader personality. My friend, Joanna, had a baby last week and I planned a baby shower for her; the problem with this was that I sort of kept forgetting I was planning a baby shower for her. By myself. Fortunately, I had three gals come up to me on Sunday and offer to bring food for the shower, so each time someone offered I did two things – first, I again remembered I was hosting a shower for Joanna; second, I quickly said, “Yes, of course you can bring something! How about a fruit tray?”

I spent Monday baking cupcakes (mine always taste better than they look – I need to work on that) and not really much else for the shower. My need to prepare manifested itself late Monday night when I couldn’t sleep because I kept thinking of everything I needed to do the next day (I finally fell asleep around 2:30 in the morning). Tuesday was spent at Target and the church, where I quickly remembered why ladies usually have help when they host a shower because I was pretty exhausted after setting the room set up (I had to schlep all the tables, chalk boards, etc., out from Sunday School) and getting it decorated for what I thought would be 20 people coming (there were many more than that).

My original plan for the shower was to have a quiet group at my house – an informal party, if you will – so I didn’t think at all about having to get up in front of these gals and actually say anything. I was just thinking: you come, you eat, you watch Joanna open presents, you mill around, you leave. Done. As it turned out, there were many ladies who attended who didn’t know each other, and there was need for formal leadership in getting everyone acquainted.
Thank God for Janet Schamp, who offered to welcome everyone, asked them to all introduce themselves, and led us in a time of conversational prayer. Whew. Clearly there’s more to this shower thing than finding flowers and choosing cute plates.

True to form, I brought my camera, took a picture of the table before everyone got there, but then never managed to pick it up again the rest of the evening. There really was a sweet baby there last night, I promise, and I think her mama was honored, too. And that’s what mattered.