My dear, dear friend Lisa is having a baby! I'm so excited for her and her husband Larry. Their little girl is due at the end of September. When Lisa texted me an ultrasound picture in March, I bit back a scream (Dave knew immediately from the gasp when I said it was a message from Lisa and since we were in the car--he was driving--he kindly asked me not to scream to loud), called her immediately and told her it would be a girl. I could just see her looking at me funny through the phone and wondering why I thought that, but I knew.
See, in January after my Mom passed, I took all her crochet materials, yarn, unfinished projects, and brought them home. As I started going through them, I found the very beginnings of a pink baby blanket, including the large ball of pink baby yarn and the pattern for a beautiful blanket. My mom had always made a crocheted blanket for every baby--no matter if it was the first, second or fifth baby, family, friend, coworker or acquaintance--a blanket for every baby. It's a tradition I started once I learned to crochet and my own friends started having babies. Racking my brain, I couldn't come up with anyone she may have known who was expecting, or at the least who was far enough along to know they were expecting a girl. But for some reason I was compelling to finish the blanket because clearly it belonged to some little girl...eventually.
Fast forward two months later but I couldn't tell Lisa why I knew she'd have a girl. Then in May she told me my prediction was right, and still, I wasn't ready to tell her why I knew in my heart of hearts that Lisa would soon have a daughter.
Since Lisa lives in Florida and our friends are scattered everywhere between here and there, a traditional shower just wasn't logistically possible. So I did the next best thing and enlisted our friends to quite literally shower her with presents, all shipping her our gifts in the same week. So I put together a package of adorable outfits, a book, a stuffed moose (Dave had to pick out something), a few things specifically for mama-to-be, and this blanket. I included a note to the baby, as well as a note to Lisa where I explained the origins of the blanket and why my convictions were so strong. I will say, for my part I did write a line in the card to tell her to stop crying, it was just the hormones.
So yeah, I got a text from Lisa, scolding me and telling me I was in trouble. But that's ok. Sometimes the only way to tell a friend you love them is to make them cry.
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