Pearl of Great Price

Sunday, June 8th: We spent the day at the hospital visiting with Brayden and Maria. We had lunch from Wendy's (Maria and I ate salads; she's inspired me to get in shape with her) then she gave us directions to get to BabysRus. Jon and I had fun shopping but of course, he wouldn't let me get too crazy since our bags are packed tight. I bought a sweet pea calendar and snugglebug announcement cards even though I want to search online for a "special delivery" stork. Oh well, no time for that right now. We found a cute babydoll for Adriana and brought it back to the hospital where we had steak dinners from Applebee's. The girl who took our order, Mara, gave us extra chocolate mousse dessert for Adriana. Everyone in Vegas has been so nice to us. Speaking of such, the next nicest person we met was tonight, after we checked in to our room at Planet Hollywood. This is our one night to enjoy the strip and see the sites before we are consumed with Brayden. Jon and I checked into our room then headed through the Miracle Mile mall to search for a special gift for Maria. We first thought of a charm bracelet but none seemed to be the right thing. We walked through the mall where the clouds turn to storm and a rainstorm showers over a portion of the center of the mall into a water fountain. We made penny wishes and threw in the fountain. Of course my wish was that all will go smoothly with Brayden's adoption. After no luck with finding the perfect gift at the mall, we walked down the strip and came across the Pearl Factory booth from Hawaii. I explained to Mariel that we were looking for a special gift for Brayden's birthmother and we thought a pearl would be nice since it is the stone for June. We found a dainty little white pearl cradled in a silver circular oval setting. We chose the necklace and Mariel told Jon to fish for an oyster in the bucket of water next to him. Jon chose an oyster and we did a tap with wood sticks on the oyster for good luck. Mariel opened the oyster and dug out a beautiful silver pearl! We were so excited and people all around us stopped to observe our discovered treasure. Jon asked if I'd like the pearl put in a setting for my new mother gift and of course I said yes with a huge smile. We chose a similar setting to Maria's pendant and found out later that it was called a "Celtic cradle"..how appropriate is that?!?!...since I love anything Celtic due to my love of Irish heritage, culture, jewelry, music, etc. Mariel and her co-worker were so happy to hear of our adoption story, they offered Jon another fishing expedition for an oyster (or maybe it was because he had just purchased 2 pieces of jewelry :). Jon fished out a second oyster and again we tapped with wood sticks for luck. Mariel opened the oyster and low and behold, a second silver pearl looking bigger than the first, was there! (And to think when I was a kid living in La., my Dad shucked dozens of fresh raw oysters and I ate them just because I wanted to get a pearl! LOL!)
When we saw the silver pearl, we were excited when Mariel told us she usually sees only 7 out of 100 silver pearls so for us to get two in a row was a rare occurrence. Mariel cleaned our pearls and made my setting. We will save the second pearl to decide on a setting later. As we waited, my eye caught another setting of a pearl sitting on a diamond crescent shaped moon. I told Mariel I liked moons, stars, celestial symbols...and can you believe she mentioned Steven Speilberg's image of the little boy fishing from the crescent moon?!...I just had that thought on the plane on Sat. and wrote about it in my blog! How amazing! Mariel read to us about the significance of a pearl taking 2 years to be created from a grain of sand and how it develops into a beautiful treasure. THIS is exactly what Brayden is to us..a TREASURE! We are so excited about our gift to Maria due to this symbolism. Reading online about birthstones I read this description: From one of the humblest of life forms, the mollusk, comes the pearl - a gem of unsurpassed beauty and elegance. Ancient civilizations had many stories to explain the origin of June's birthstone, such as the Greek belief that pearls were the hardened tears of joy that the goddess of love shook from her eyes as she was born from the sea. According to Arab legend, pearls were formed when oysters were lured from the depths of the ocean by the beautiful moon and then swallowed moonlit dewdrops. ALSO, Jon sails on a crew and the sailboat is named "Pearl of Great Price". The Parable of the Pearl or the Pearl of Great Price is told by Jesus in explaining the value of the Kingdom of Heaven, according to Matthew 13:45-46. The kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it. Jesus said, "The Father's kingdom is like a merchant who had a supply of merchandise and found a pearl. That merchant was prudent; he sold the merchandise and bought the single pearl for himself. So also with you, seek his treasure that is unfailing, that is enduring, The implied analogy was that the Kingdom of Heaven was of such worth that his disciples should gladly be willing to give up their wealth and comfort to obtain it. Christians typically take the parable to mean that the heavenly riches are far greater than the full total of all worldly riches.

On Monday, June 9th, Jon and I wrote a card to Maria to give with her pearl necklace. We struggled to come up with the right words to express how grateful we are for her choosing us to be Brayden's parents. While I was in the store choosing a greeting card (blooming pink flower; blank inside), Jon wrote a few sentences about how Brayden is the precious treasure that Maria created for us and we will always have treasured memories to share with our son of his beautiful, strong and loving birthmother. Jon's beautiful words made me cry. Again, I love this man more each day! We gave Maria her gift at the hospital and she loved it.