Wonderful People, Great Baby Shower, This Week's Moment of Irony...

This past Saturday the congregation I serve as pastor threw a Baby Shower for Kristin, Little Miss and me. It was an absolutely wonderful event - 'my church' is a group of gracious, generous people. One of the out of town guests from Kristin's former church called us on the road back to the Cities to tell us how welcomed they felt and how appreciative they were of the people they met that day. I'm happy to say that this is a regular experience for many who come to our church.

Of course, a highlight for me was the presence of my parents, my brother and his wife and their son, my mother-in-law, Kristin's sister and her son and our sister-in-law from Eugene. Yes, it was a houseful of people. Yes, it was a little overwhelming. Yes, the kids got crabby once in a while. Yes, it was fabulous to have that family time - we both needed it very badly! Uncle Scott (aka "Uncle Butt" by my nephew who can't quite get out Scott yet) played the "flying game" until his shoulders were aching!

AND I got to see my friend Nate and his sons Bereket & Eshetu, who are growing like crazy and SO much fun to be around. Nate's such a great dad - and I wish we could have seen his wife Audrey, too, but she was home sick, unfortunately.

Here are some pictures of the great weekend:
Kristin and our new sister-in-law Wendy opening gifts at the shower.

Of course, our people know us well. We received dueling outfits for little miss' Saturday wear. It's going to be a race to see who can get up early and dress her first!
This week's moment of irony: Nebraska is sponsored by adidas, Oregon by Nike, yet you'll notice that our Oregon cheerleader outfit is an adidas product - and the Nebraska one was made by Nike.

The grandmas-to-be and our friend Kathryn spent a few hours after the shower sorting clothes into sizes. Frankly, I don't have the words to say thank you deeply enough for this. When I saw the mound of clothes we had been given, I thought we'd need to begin plans for an addition to our house. These three were wonderful to do all that work for us. They also cut all the tags off the clothes - guess that means we better have a girl, huh?