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Nicole Chryst

Wellness Educator

 

Chasing truth, beauty, goodness, and all things naturally wholistic.

Faith over fear.

Ephesians 2:8-10

 

I’ve been married to my high school sweetheart since 2003. Together, we have four amazing children, by birth and adoption. When I am not teaching fine arts to my favorite upper school students at our incredible classical Christian school, I spend my days on our 7-acre property where I try my best to love my family well and experiment with hobby homesteading. My favorite things to do are cultivate my ever-expanding gardens, wrangle chickens, ferment all the things, sourdough bake with einkorn flour, and figure out new ways to use essential oils. I believe God has tasked us to be good stewards of our spaces in the world, and I guide my children to do the same.


I am a board member of The Sparrow Fund and an Empowered to Connect Facilitator. I love to dig in the dirt, cook nourishing food, capture beauty through my camera lens, watch the sunrise on the beach, and spend time with good literature on my porch while sipping on a hot cup of coffee.

An adoption baby shower

When I was asked to help plan a sprinkle shower for my sweet friend, I was happy for the chance to celebrate another special child coming home from China! I didn’t take many pictures at the event unfortunately, but we had a great time celebrating with my dear mama friend. I pulled out all of my Chinese New Year decorations and we went wild turning the house into a festive Chinese party, dragons and lanterns hanging from the ceiling and all. I also created a “good luck” tree table centerpiece with red envelopes and decorative Asian coins hung from a bouquet of sticks. We ate some delicious homemade Chinese food with chopsticks, including dumplings, crab meat wontons, fried rice, wonton soup, and buttery moon cookies. One of the other girls created and decorated a gorgeous panda-inspired cake. But if you aren’t into making cakes, decorating a plain white cake with a lot of colorful fruit is traditional and would work just as well!

We played adoption and China-inspired shower games during the party too. Game prizes were framed paintings of the Great Wall that were created in China by one of those artists who works with only their hands for paint brushes. And of course, my friend received so many sweet gifts from her family and friends! We made sure to include gifts of a few new adoption books, a stunning custom name charm from Jiayin Designs, and a beautiful China-themed adoption “baby book.” She also received several other China-inspired gifts for her son.

It has been such a privilege to walk with my friends on their journey to bring their new son home. Celebrating with a Chinese-inspired sprinkle was a wonderful way to honor his birth heritage and share about where he comes from. Adding to a family through adoption is a beautiful process to witness!

If you are looking for some China adoption-themed shower games, please check out the blog post for THESE games from my friend, Kelly, at MyOverthinking. Also, I created two more games for the shower:

China Adoption Acronyms (answers)
Mandarin Match-Up (answers)

Although most of the shower guests were not adoptive moms, going over the answers for the China Adoption Acronyms game was a terrific way to explain the adoption process to everyone. I also think a trivia game about Chinese history or culture could be a fun addition!

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Affiliate Disclosure

I may earn a small commission for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial, and/or link to any products or services from this website. Your purchases through affiliate links help support my work in bringing you real information about health and wholistic wellness.

CONTACT ME

Street, Maryland

443.690.2385

nicole@naturallywholistic.com

Affiliate Disclosure

I may earn a small commission for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial, and/or link to any products or services from this website. Your purchases through affiliate links help support my work in bringing you real information about health and wholistic wellness.

CONTACT ME

Street, Maryland

443.690.2385

nicole@naturallywholistic.com