It wasn’t hard to understand my friend, Yadira, when she asked me to help her host a baby shower. “Baby shower” in Dominican Spanish is simply translated as “Baby Shower.” I was honored and excited that she would think of me to help her out. “When do you want to have the shower?” I asked Yadira? “Sunday” she replied. Sunday was just five days away but I decided to embrace the Dominican style of planning and so I agreed that Sunday would be a great day for the shower.
I immediately started the planning and preparation…. buying invitations, making cookies, checking on prices of cakes, and buying lots of pink balloons per Yadira’s request. It all felt quite familiar and I loved serving Yadira in this way.
I rushed over to Yadira’s house on Sunday, three hours before the shower, to help cook; clean; and set up. There was indeed much to be done. When I opened the door of the house I saw Yadira, reclining and chatting with three other women. The house was a mess and no food had been prepared. They were all very calm and they invited me to sit and relax with them. My instinct was to ignore their offer to sit and just get busy cleaning and preparing. But then I took a deep breath and again embraced the Dominican style of planning. I squirmed in my chair a little as I watched the clock tick away. The time for guests to arrive came and Yadira decided to take a shower and get ready. Of course that’s ok because Dominican women didn’t start arriving until an hour and a half past the scheduled start time of the shower. Many didn’t arrive until 3 hours into the shower. By then we had about 30 women on Yadira’s patio; the music was cranked up; and we were drinking fresh pineapple juice. We were officially having a baby shower.
Two hours after that under the dark sky we were still having a baby shower. It was long, it was loud, it was late, and it was a Dominican baby shower success!
I’ve never been so exhausted yet so energized after a baby shower. I was exhausted because I spent about 8 hours at a baby shower where the women spoke a different language than me. I was energized because my friend Yadira was loved on in a big way. Yadira’s life is hard in many ways but this day she got showered with so much love. I thank God for the opportunity to pour into her and to tell her she is special. Her baby girl is due in two days. Please pray protection for her and her baby. Please pray that God would continue to show me how to share the love of Christ with Yadira and that she would know her worth in Him!
