Abundance

Rich and I had our first baby shower this past weekend. His mother wanted to give us one so she secured her sister's house in Connecticut and his parents, his sister, her husband and 3-year old daughter, and his brother and his wife all flew up from south Florida for the festivities. There must have been about 20 people there, all of them Rich's relatives, many of them family members Rich has barely seen in the past 15 years and some of whom I have never even met. We were overwhelmed by their generosity. We received a car seat, a Pack n' Play (it's a playpen that has a bassinet and changing table feature - perfect for people who live in small spaces), a Baby Bjorn, an infant chair, two handmade blankets and zillions of clothes, receiving blankets and washclothes. Two of my mother-in-law's cousins (two of the people I had never met before Sunday) gave us a seemingly bottomless box of clothes - there must have been 10-15 outfits in that one box alone. When we packed up the car the trunk filled up and we had to put things in the back seat. As we drove away we expressed our thanks and disbelief at the generosity of his family and then again as we made two trips to the car to unload it all into our apartment. We are so, so lucky.

In related news, I am going to look at some available two bedrooom apartments tomorrow. [note: for those who don't know, Rich and I live in subsidized NYU faculty housing and are at the mercy of the university when it comes to moving to a bigger apartment. We have been waiting for months.] I have been feeling a bit like Lady Macbeth through this whole process - determined to get what we want and deserve and prepared to be a royal bitch about it. I don't like that side of me and while I have always possessed a certain determination and tenacity, being pregnant has brought out the lioness in me. I'm not doing this for Rich and me, I'm doing it for the family. It's been bizarre to realize this particular source of my determination. Ever hear stories of moms lifting cars to save their children pinned beneath? This experience gives me the faintest hint of where that comes from.