A blessed surprise

Life has been VERY busy for the last week and a half - for a very very very good reason :) I was thrown a surprise baby shower, which also included the biggest shock of my life: my friend Mary Frances flew in from Seattle to surprise me at the shower! She is like my other half and finally made Colorado feel complete by being there. So many people coordinated to pull this thing off and line up schedules, I will never be able to thank everyone enough. I thought I was meeting a few girlfriends at our church to carpool to the Melting Pot for a little "girl's night out" to celebrate someone's birthday. I was definitely fooled because that was never actually the plan. Here are just a few of the key "story telling" pictures...

*********

Everyone waiting in the half-lit church to surprise me. Kim is very excited that she's on video camera duty...

Robin and Tyson and Robin's mom, Kathleen, hiding at the back of the church to be part of the surprise.
Lisa (most amazing shower planner EVER) telling me that she has a surprise - my first time ever even thinking that the Melting Pot might not be happening.

The party set up at the back of the room! And a very special someone waiting in the very back to hand me the biggest surprise of all.

My sneaky, sneaky friend waiting with baby Owen in the back while I went through the first surprise of being thrown a shower.

Lisa and Anna telling me they have one "timely" present to give me before the shower starts.

Aaaaand my face of pure shock as Mary Frances walked out of the back room. I have never been, and probably will never be again, that happy and surprised in my LIFE. Not the most flattering pictures of me, considering I'm crying my eyes out, but they tell the story well...

Refusing to let go of Mary Frances just in case I blink and she's not really there.

More babies and fabulous friends showering blessings on me!

Cutest handmade onesie and matching headband EVER! Abby, you're amazing.

So in love with girl clothes it's not even funny.

Anna's brilliant idea to pile all of the "loot" into the church's crib to wheel it out to the car.

Aaaaand the sneakiest liars and best surprise shower throwers ever :) Could never put into words how they blessed me that night. Thank you 1,000 times over for all of the planning and emailing and scheduling and preparation that went into pulling off this amazing surprise!!