The Showering Continued

Since this blog has become the official documentation of our pregnancy (I'm working on turning the pregnancy posts into an actual book), I wanted to share about our last two baby showers that came as a complete surprise last week.

Every Wednesday morning my team has what we call "Matching Meetings" where we present new homestudy-approved families added to our waitlist and update each other on our recruitment and matching efforts for the kids on our caseloads. These meetings are much-anticipated for the simple fact that bagels are usually involved. I was on my way to the meeting last week when various people, including my supervisor, felt the need to stop and talk to me about what I felt to be very insignificant things. As we were sitting her office discussing her son being sick the day before, I kept looking at the clock thinking "We're going to be late and I could really use a bagel!". Five minutes after the meeting started, a co-worker called her office to ask if she was coming to the meeting. I was just hoping all the good bagels weren't gone at that point. Social workers are like vultures when it comes to free food. Little did I know, all the randomness of the morning was actually stall tactics so that my co-workers could put the finishing touches on decorating the conference room in lots of pink! There was a huge spread of delicious food (bagels included), a beautiful little cake, lots of pink decorations, some very special balloons, and a lot of smiling faces waiting for me on the other side of the conference room doors when I opened them. It was a lovely surprise. We enjoyed some food and discussed horrendous baby names we've seen throughout our careers in child welfare. They gave me a beautiful card with a very generous Target gift card to purchase some of the items remaining on our registry. I am so thankful that although I've only worked at Children's for a short period of time, I have such a thoughtful bunch of co-workers. I just wish I had a camera on hand to take pictures!

The very next day, Dave's co-workers surprised him with his very own baby shower. I was so incredibly thrilled to hear that they did this because I know how special it made Dave feel. I think often as the dad you don't get to share the full excitement of pregnancy with others since you dont visibly carry a baby around inside of you for nine months. Dave has some truly wonderful co-workers who showered him with lots of food, more delicious cake, and some very thoughtful gifts. I have been talking about how I plan to make all of our own baby food but they had no idea! There must be some experienced mammas among his co-workers because they got us a really nice food processor, two delicious baby recipe books, food storage trays for the freezer, and all the fixings for baby food making. Not to mention some adorable bibs, burp cloths, and toddler eating accessories. Luckily Dave's boss captured a few pictures on his Blackberry. We are both so blessed to have supportive work families who are as much awaiting baby girl's birth as we are!