When my pretty little niece Emily was expecting her very first and much prayed for baby daughter–after 5 boys!–a good friend threw her a well deserved baby shower…but with a twist.
In the invitation we were told that this was not just a baby shower but would be a “Blessing Way” as well. I’d heard of them before, but had never been to one. Wanting to know more, I searched online to better understand.
Turns out that while a typical Baby Shower is a way to help parents celebrate and prepare for the new baby coming into their lives, a Blessing Way is a ceremony designed to honor the new mother and the change her life is about to make. The idea too, is that she is surrounded by the women that she loves most in the world as they offer her their love, support and blessing as she moves into this sacred place.
Isn’t that lovely?
My favorite part about this event was that we were all asked beforehand to choose a bead or token of some type with the new mother in mind. Something that made us think of her in some way.
We would have the opportunity to give her the bead and explain our choice at the party–if we wanted to. Some friends chose to write a personal note rather than tell everyone.
So much love went into each choice that just talking about it made many of us mush-heads cry. It felt like a gratitude ceremony, not only to the new mom–but for mothers and women everywhere that have blessed our lives.
At the end the beads and tokens were all strung into a beautiful necklace for mom to keep and treasure for always.
It is such a beautiful thing to be able to put your hopes and wishes into an actual physical thing that will remind a dear one that she is so loved, so blessed and so valued every day of her life.
If you’d like to know more about a Blessing Way–you can do what I did and go HERE. There are plenty of ways to add extra tenderness and meaning to a Shower for a new mama in your life.
Widow Kirby and her children–the little guy on the bottom left…is my dad.