An outpouring of love.

Our friends and family have been nothing but loving and supportive since we announced Raspberry's existence back in December.  We have received multitudes of hugs, cards, gifts, and tidbits of advice from everyone and it is clearer now than ever to us that we are well loved and that Raspberry will enjoy the same.  Last night was no different.  Cortney is a deacon at our church and last night we were overwhelmed by the outpouring of love for Raspberry, and the two of us, in a surprise shower event organized by Cortney's Quad leader and friend, Michelle, at the deacons' monthly meeting.  Before the meeting several of the deacons surprised Cortney with gift bags, including two wonderful lullaby CDs from the family of Jon's confirmand, and a wonderful hand stitched bib and amazingly beautiful, hand carved rattle from Sandy and her husband.  As if that wasn't surprising enough, at the end of the standard meeting a very unsuspecting, and somewhat embarrassed, Cortney was called to the front of the room and presented with a gift certificate and two very personal gifts:  the first was a quilt pieced together from squares signed by the other deacons in Cortney's quad and hand sewn by Michelle;  the second was a beautiful scrapbook, every page containing the advice, stories, prayers, etc., hand written by each of the 54 other deacons and put together by Michelle.  The amount of work put into making those two gifts is incredibly touching, as is their personal nature.  We will cherish them always, and they will forever remind us of how loved we really are.  We cannot wait for Raspberry to meet all the wonderful people who already care so much about him before he has even entered the world.