Today was the long awaited, much anticipated baby shower for Jina! Vanessa had put together quite a crew of helpers, and we were all at St. Francis Xavier school at noon to get ready. Vanessa had recruited Nate's mom, Patty, and most of Jina's former bridesmaids (myself and Nate's sister, Krista, included) to set up the room. The guests were due to arrive around 1:30, so we started setting up tables, arranging gifts, flowers, cakes, silverware, etc. Vanessa arrived around 1:00 with almost all of the food! She and Patty had also put together some awesome photo collages of Nate and Jina's lives:
Guest of honor was due to arrive at 2:00, and everyone else knew about the shower, including Nate, but her. Fortunately, Jeff and Patti (Nate's best man and his wife - also a former bridesmaid) were up for the weekend for the St. Mike's reunion. They had spent the morning visiting with Nate and Jina and had convinced them to come to Colchester to visit another friend. Just as they were getting ready to depart, Jina started having some minor contractions. Occassional contractions are nothing new for this lady - she has them generally a few times a day for less than an hour. Since the party was for Jina, and since we didn't actually want the baby to arrive BEFORE the shower, everyone waited patiently for things to settle down.
Fortunatley our ace in the hole was able to update me via text message about their delay and arrival status. When we heard they were just around the corner, all of the ladies attending the shower rushed out to the front of the school, where Nate neatly pulled up and deposited his wife.
It took us forever to get her inside and sitting down! Jina greeted and hugged every person at the shower and even spent a little time looking around the room and at all the photos. Vanessa had also decorated the room with art work Jina had done in elementary school and a college of children's books and baby clothes. Once Jina was settled we did some introductions around the room and each one of Jina's former bridesmaids offered small speeches with bits of advice (from those who are mothers) and well wishes. Then it was time to eat! As you can imagine, Vanessa put out quite the spread! There was WAY too much food, but everyone enjoyed it hardily and had no trouble going for seconds.
After lunch Jina did her best to open all of the gifts that had been brought - and there were quite a few! She received almost everything on her registry, including a few homemade treasures from family members - highlights were hand knit blankets and hats from Nate's Grandmother and a wooden toy chest by Aunt Diana. By the end of the gifts it was late in the afternoon and most of the guests had to head out. Vanessa had invited the boys to join us for cake, so Nate, Ray and Jeff arrived to do some damage to the food and help with the clean up.
Poor lady - Jina started having contractions almost as soon as the gift opening was complete! When she arrived we had joked with her that she only needed to make it through opening the presents before she had the baby - and then we could send the cake with her to the hospital! While it didn't come to that, she did end up making a visit to the ER, just to check things out. They put her on a bit of bed rest, and after about 36 HOURS the contractions did finally stop!
Overall we were all thrilled that the shower ended up as a surprise, and I know that Jina was touched and excited to see so many family and friends there to celebrate. We are so excited to meet Anastasia - now that the shower is over, she can come any time! 