Tuesday, March 15, 2022

Baby Shower: A Little Cutie Is On the Way!

I feel so lucky to have gotten two baby showers (one virtual for folks back home and one in person here in South Korea) before our little one arrives in just a few short weeks! I was impressed with the organizers (my sister for the first one and a team of four friends N, L, S, and T for the second) for their creativity, willingness to work with my pandemic precautions, and resourcefulness at finding gender-neutral invitations, games, etc! (The baby industry is so gendered that even putting together a gender-neutral registry was tough.)

My first shower was held on Zoom, and I had so much fun I completely forgot to grab a screenshot. It was a great mix of friends from different parts of my life as well as family, and we played a baby trivia Jeopardy game where let's just say there was a huge range in both questions and the familiarity of the attendees with the answers.

My second shower kept getting postponed due to waves of COVID-19 in Korea, but my friend N eventually pointed out that any further delay probably meant I wouldn't have one before the baby arrived. So we whipped out our hand sanitizer and masks and my wonderful friends organized an outdoor, socially distanced baby shower so I wouldn't miss out on that experience. It had an adorable "cutie" orange/tangerine theme, and from the moment I walked into the setup I felt so special. (Yes, I even reused my maternity photo shoot flower crown. When else am I going to wear it?)

We chatted, enjoyed delicious food and drinks, played baby shower games, decorated onesies, and opened presents. There was even a decorative #Sbitiny sign L made that matched the theme that people could sign like a guest book. Given the long shipping time between when someone orders off of our U.S.-based registry and when the products arrive in Korea, I thought I wouldn't be able to do presents at all but M got pictures of the items that were still on the way and sent them to N so she could print them out and put them in wrapped boxes. It was so thoughtful.

Even though it was a women-only baby shower, several of the male significant others of the party planners came to help set up and clean up, as well. It felt like a team effort to celebrate me, the baby, and the excitement of our growing family. We are so fortunate to have family and friends who love us enough to do something like this for us. Especially when you're preparing to give birth and navigate becoming a parent far from home, it makes all the difference.

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