A lovely surprise

Again, this is not about the baby….yet.

This surprise came in the form of a very large box.  First, the back story.

Since the beginning of the year, I’ve been involved in a Frugal Living swap and then a discussion thread about frugal crafting on Craftster.  I’ve made quite a few friends there and enjoyed myself quite a bit.  In the middle of February, I got a message from the organizer of the swap asking if she could pass my address on to someone who wanted to send me something (a good something, she said).  I didn’t mind that so I gave her the go ahead.  And then I mostly forgot about it. I finished up that swap and got into another round of it last month and only occasionally wondered if that someone had ever sent me a package.  I mostly thought about it because I worried that it might have been lost.  It wasn’t lost. 🙂

Yesterday morning, the doorbell rang and there was the postwoman with a VERY large box.  I mean BIG.  I didn’t recognize the name on the box, but it was from Olympia, Washington – and I knew one person from the swap was from Olympia.  I signed for it and brought it in and started to open it up.  There were two notes on the top of the box – the first one said that this was the idea of one dear friend of mine from Craftster and that they had organized it so that everyone would send things to one person and she would send it all to me.  It was a baby shower in a box.  The second card said that there were more packages coming from a few other people.  I still can barely fathom more when I think of what was in that box. 

I took the box into the living room and dove in with the kids.  All told, there were baby gifts (and a few things for the kids and me) from seventeen different Craftster friends.  And nearly all of it (98% probably) is handmade.  Knitted, crocheted, sewn, painted – and all of it lovely.  I fought tears the whole time, feeling so incredibly blessed by this outpouring of love from people I barely know (and those I know better I only know over the internet).  I only hope I can pay it back – or forward – in some way in the future.

WordPress image uploading is being a pain in the neck – so I made a flickr album with photos and descriptions (including who each gift was from) – here’s the link: Baby Shower in a Box!  This is easily one of the BEST surprises I’ve ever received – I’m still in awe of the incredible generosity of all these lovely women!