Claire's Baby Shower

If anyone ever had any doubt that Claire is loved, they need only travel to Pleasant Grove Baptist Church in Cordele, Georgia to be proven wrong. This past Sunday, the church hosted a baby shower for Claire. Pleasant Grove is the church at which Brad's dad preaches. Since Claire's diagnosis, I'm told, not a Sunday has passed without her name being mentioned - pronounced in prayer, uttered in updates, spoken along with words of encouragement. I am so grateful for the interest that the church has shown in Claire. It warms my heart to know that so many people already care so deeply about her and hope and pray for her well-being as emphatically as Brad and I do. Sunday's baby shower for Claire was a testament to just how wonderful the church is. Although Brad and I have only visited a few times, several ladies from the church expressed an interest in throwing Claire a baby shower, and everyone went out of their way to make the day special. From the pink flowers decorating the pulpit to the Claire "bears" watching carefully over the cake, no detail was missed. And the gifts - oh, the gifts! They left me speechless. I am touched by everyone's generosity. Claire now has some of the most precious little outfits that any little girl could ever want. She will certainly be the best dressed baby on the block! The best gift of all, however, is the wonderful memories I will take away from the day. If and when Claire has a bad day - if her shunt fails or her seizures return - I will be able to draw upon the memories of the day for courage and strength. I leave you with a few pictures from the day - Can you tell we had a good time?

Posing with the pink flowers.

Editor's note: There are more pictures here. I spent an hour uploading them earlier this week, then somehow I just managed to delete them all from this post. When I tried to re-upload them, I kept getting an error message, so I decided to create a separate blog post and upload them there.