Welcome Home!

We were able to come home on Friday, June 29th. Fortunately, I was feeling up to walking the few blocks home. It felt great to get outside and to get some fresh air. Kate is enjoying having her Grandma here to help and Daddy even got to stay home for a few days, too.


Kate's "going home" outfit.












Snug as a bug in a rug...in her stroller.






Proud Daddy and Grandma

Happy Birth Day, Kate!!

One day, life exists as you know it and the next brings a completely new adventure. Kathryn "Kate" Marie Sullivan was born on Wednesday, June 27th at 3:51PM. At 6 lbs 11oz and 20 1/2 inches long, Kate entered this world absolutely perfect in every way. We are extremely blessed.

Here is the story:

On Tuesday, June 26th David and I went out to dinner with a college friend, John-Michael Kretz, who was up in NY visiting for work. We decided to go to a yummy Italian place across the street and enjoyed a nice long meal with wine (I even had a little bit for me). As the check was coming, I noticed that something felt different and decided to go to the restroom. It was at that point that I realized that my water had broken -without going into more detail...it was pretty obvious! So, I calmly and quickly told David and our friend that we need to get to the hospital as my water had broken. Keep in mind that when your water breaks - it does not all come at once - it keeps coming and coming and coming in quite large amounts.

We walked across the street to the apartment, called the doctor, and started walking our 2 blocks to the apartment (with my water still coming). A memory we will forever remember. I hadn't started contractions, so I was not in pain at this point. We arrived and were checked in and Kate made an appearance at 3:51pm the next day. It was long, but worth every minute.

David was an amazing husband! He "breathed" me through each contraction. :) As many of you know, my mom was also able to make it within an hour of the delivery and to have the 2 of them with me in the room was such a blessing. I will have many more pictures as time goes on. Enjoy and we can't wait for you all to meet Kate!

Showered With Love

This is way overdue...but over the past month, I have been blessed with 2 wonderful baby showers in New York. The first was a COMPLETE surprise! My team and friends at work put it all together. They did it a good 3 weeks before my last day in the office, so it would "throw" me off. They did an amazing job! I thought I was going to a marketing meeting, so you'll notice the laptop in hand and especially the look of shock to see about 60 of my team members, including the partners and practice leaders, AND my husband there to celebrate this fun time. So fun!

The other shower, was given by my sweet friends from church. It was such a beautiful shower; they put so much thought and detail into everything. Here are just a few of the pictures taken and here is the link to the website (Shawna's NY shower), so you can see more. Keep in mind they are unedited, so you may see a lot of Shawna opening gifts and making really funny faces.

The funniest part of it all, was how to get all of the gifts back to our place. It's not like you have a car just outside to load them up into and David happened to have the CFA exam on the same day! So, my friend's sweet husband loaded up a "hotel" cart and pushed all of the gifts 2 blocks and helped us get them all home. There were 5 other girls who helped as well, so we literally looked like a parade marching up the upper east side. Now that is a great NY memory for sure!

We feel so blessed by those around us in NY and in Texas who have celebrated this special time with us. We can't wait for Kate to enjoy all of her new things!! Thank you to all of you who helped with these special events!

Kountdown for Kate!

Well...I went to the doctor this week and oh yes - the official countdown has begun! I am 1 cm. dilated (or was on Tuesday) and there is no turning back at this point, because as you know...1 leads to 2 (not 0), which leads to 5 and then to 10 eventually. Ahhh!

Funny, how just one doctor's appointment changes everything, isn't it? It could be any day now that we will WALK to the hospital and return only to find our entire lives changed - for the better, of course. Entering into the "unknown" can always be scary, but I'm thankful for friends that God has brought into my life in the City who are in the same situation.

That really makes all the difference in the world and has been such an answer to prayer, not to mention the fact that David has been amazing during my entire pregnancy. I can't imagine doing this alone. He has been so affirming and encouraging every step of the way, and it's that much sweeter to share something so special with the one you love and who loves you more than anything. It's really how it's supposed to be and I'm so blessed by my husband.

So, how do you prepare for the most enormous change in your life? It's one you know is coming, but you just don't know when and where. For a "planner" like myself...that is a tough one, but another reminder of how NOT-in-control we really are and just another area of life that I have to remember to bring before God each day or it will just get too overwhelming.

Just a few things I'm excited about as I reflect on the next few weeks:
~ looking at Kate's sweet face and getting to touch her little feet
~ rocking her to sleep (yes - sleep)
~ praying over her
~ laying with her and David and just admiring God's creation while holding my husband's hand
~ watching my parents, sister and brother with Kate
~ watching my husband as his heart melts each time he holds her
~ seeing God's faithfulness take yet another form in my life

There are so many things really, but this is a start. Ok, so as part of the countdown, I must keep reading my baby, breastfeeding, and "sleep tips" books, AND working on my adorable baby book made by my sweet and talented friend, Courtney. Check out her website! (If you mention that you heard of her from my website, she'll give you a 10% discount! Go shop!)

Ok, so I'm off to attack the to-do list! Thank you to those who have called to "check in" and for those of you who are praying. We welcome them both and appreciate them more than you know.

Stay tuned...

Our "Evening" with celebs!

So one of my favorite NY memories was last night. It will for sure go into Kate's baby book as one of the crazy things her parents did while she was still in the "belly". I wish I had pictures to share with you...but we really couldn't take pictures, so you'll just have to believe me.

My friend, Christian, and I are a part of an expectant moms group on the upper east side and the person who started the group has "connections", so we all got an email invitation to attend a movie premiere for FREE. We both received tickets and were able to bring our husbands. Not knowing what to expect, we showed up last night at a theatre in Chelsea. The movie is called Evening and is coming out in 2 weeks. We really didn't know much about it, but just knew there was an all-star cast and we just had to go and see what this was all about.

So, we show up and get our tickets. The "dress" was "summer festive casual" - and as Christian said...the celebrity version of that was a little different than hers or mine. Either way, it was definitely casual - like way more casual than you could ever imagine. The security was crazy outside, paprazzi and cameras everywhere - but once inside the theater, everyone just mingled together. Like the biggest stars and directors were just standing next to you engaged in their own conversations. There was no division, we all sat next to each other and watched the movie. So crazy!

So, here's who we saw. I could blog all day about this, but you get the picture. It was so stinkin' cool.

* Claire Danes - beautiful!
* Glenn Close - striking!
* Patrick Wilson
* Hugh Dancy
* Mamie Gummer (Meryl Streep's daughter) - went to the bathroom with her and literally splashed water on her when I was washing my hands and she was putting more lipstick on... Oops! I said I was sorry and she laughed and said it was ok. Oh gosh!
* Eileen Atkins
* Natasha Richardson - 2 rows in front of us
* Vanessa Redgrave
* Lajos Koltai - the Director of the movie
* Bernadette Peters (Annie - hello!?)
* Guy from Law & Order (can't remember his name, but David knows it)
* Ang Lee (director from Brokeback Mountain) - I almost took his popcorn and had to apologize. He was super nice.
* Allyson C. Johnson - Editor of the movie - David and I sat next to her - no pressure or anything. She said she wanted to see how we react to it.
* Regis Philbin (didn't see, but Will and Christian did)
* Donna Karan (didn't see, but Will and Christian did)

We saw so many other people, there were just too many to keep track of in this small space. Like it was a movie theater the size of (maybe smaller) the old Rockwall 8 movie theater. As the Editor said to me...this was a very heavy celebrity concentrated premiere...so pretty much everyone was someone, we just couldn't figure them all out or keep track fast enough. Then there was this small contingent of pregnant women...hahahaha - we knew how they got there. :) The Editor asked me if we were in the film business and I said - "No, just pregnant". LOL. She got a big kick out of that story. She said she had never heard of such a thing before. Such a great memory!

Shawna's movie review:
Pros:An all-star cast for sure; beautiful scenery/cinematography; makes you think about your life and what it's all about
Cons: Pretty slow and drawn out; definitely could have been shorter and still developed a plot; I wanted more character development
Overall: A girl movie and could definitely just be a rental

My prayer for us this week

Here is a thought or two to think about this week. Church was so powerful yesterday, that it left me in tears and speechless. For those of you who know me, the later is much more difficult than the former. JR talked about Moses (not sure if you've heard of him) and the Exodus and that unless our lives are aligned with God's epic - the big story - then we are wasting our lives on such insignificant things. So good to hear again.

We then prayed over a girl who is going into Thailand to film a documentary which will aid in trying to put an end to children involved in sex slavery. She is a young girl and yet is willing to put her life on the line in an effort to make a difference. Her father was in the service and cried outloud during the prayer as he realized that his daughter's life was in jeopardy that even though he is so proud of her, there is a reality that she is not his. She is God's and that our children are simply "on loan" to us for their time on this earth. So moving.

To conclude the service, this benediction was read. I pray this stirs something in each of you. I pray that you would be moved to live outside of your comfort and to take a risk on something that would contribute to the bigger story - God's story. How is your life, not your husbands, not your mom's, not your friend's, not your son or daughter's, but YOUR life contributing and aligning itself with the only story that really matters?

All the while, I had my friend from work, who I blogged about last time, sitting beside me at church. God is good.

This is my prayer for you and I.

A Franciscan Benediction

May God bless you with discomfort
At easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships
So that you may live deep within your heart.

May God bless you with anger
At darkness, injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people,
So that you may work for the gospel, justice, freedom and peace.

May God bless you with tears
To shed for those who suffer alienation from God, pain, rejection, hunger and war,
So that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and
To turn their pain into joy.

And may God bless you with enough foolishness
To believe that you can make a difference in the world.
So that you can do what others claim cannot be done
To bring salvation and justice to all the lost and the poor.
Go, in the name of our God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Additions by JR Vassar