Feeling a sense of community

One of the motivations for trying this experiment was creating a sense of community - possibly a virtual community around this website - but more importantly a real community of friends and family, coming together, and literally providing for our child for a year. It seemed romantic and idealistic and the ultimate continuation of our relationship as a couple.

We met through mutual friends, we had a potluck picnic wedding, we host Friday night dinners at our home almost every week. And, as we met a little later in life, we both know the importance of and have relied on a larger community as an important source of support and love.

All that said, nothing could have prepared us for the gratefulness we have felt to our friends and family over the last week. It's awe-inspiring the love that has come via care packages and visits.

We're not sure if it would have felt the same to get all of these items as gifts vs. loaners/used-items, but we sense that this is different.

In a way this experiment connects us physically to our friends and their babies. In a way it feels like they're lending us - passing on - a piece of their happiness as a family. In a way, by being a bit more of a pain in the neck, our friends and family are going the extra mile and showing they love us and our little guy - despite of or maybe because of - our craziness.

We feel so blessed, humbled and thankful to all of you for welcoming our child into the world with so much love.

THANK YOU to everyone!