hats and a blanket

*edited to add pictures*

So I knew when I went back to work my motivation to do things in the evening would decline and I tried to get as much done as I could to prepare for Sammy's birth. I can get through much of the planning that any birth would require...or at least I can convince myself 'we would do this anyway' so it makes parts of the planning seem easier. Hat's were a pretty safe place to start.

Before we knew boy or girl I had visited one of my favorite websites, Etsy, and fallen in love with the little crocheted hats. It's something my Grandma Scrabeck would have done, in fact, I'm pretty sure I stashed some booties and a crocheted yellow cardigan somewhere as we sorted through her finished products back in 2001 after she passed away. But in Grandma's absence, I commissioned my mom to make a couple hats. Turns out those hats will be pretty great to have for pictures. While we were in Minnesota, Dave, my mom, and I spent some time at the craft store picking out yarn. It had to be the softest and absolute perfect shade of each blue, brown, green and white. We found patterns on line, Dave had a fav, I had a fav and my mom had a couple fav's so I think there are 4 little hats now finished and hanging out in Minnesota.

Sammy's hats - can you guess who liked which hat?

Some of the first advice we got in preparing for a limited time with our Sammy was to sleep with a blanket that we picked out for him so he could be surrounded by us from his first moments after birth. I loved that idea and my mom offered to make a blanket. We picked out that material the same day as the yarn. I think we did a super job, pouring over quilt magazines at the store to find a perfectly simple pattern. The front side is minky soft material in brown, blue, and white and the back is a modern pattern in blue, white, and a great green.

The blanket is already special for 3 big reasons:

1. Nanna Shelly made it (that's what my fur babies call my mom)

2. Secretly - I will always remember the super sweet and tender moments when we picked out the material it became obvious once again how much Sammy is loved by his daddy (misty eyes and all)

3. It's also rumored that when my little bro visited my mom in MN he spent some time lovin' on the blanket as well. I love that it will be so loved before it's wrapped around our baby.

front of the blanket

back & front of blanket

Yeah...this was kinda backhanded planning. Dave and I picked out the raw material but the real prep was done by someone else. Hmmm.

I'm struck by how "the real prep" for this whole situation was done for us before we could have planned for it. From the amazing husband the Lord blessed me with, to the blogs I have read over the years with stories similar to ours, and even down to the music the Lord led me to right before I found out I was pregnant that has helped me through some of this...that's some orchestrated prep.

I bet this is another growth point where time will provide more evidence of God's preparing us before we even knew.