I keep this little piece of fabric on the shelf by Audrey’s changing table. It was made for me by a friend to look at during childbirth. I went into labor two weeks before my due date and didn’t have it, or my blessings or anything from my shower, so I didn’t actually get to see it until after Audrey was born.

But I like to look at it now because in a way it reminds me not as much of Audrey’s birth, but of how my friends came together to support me before she arrived, while I was laboring, and afterward, and how much that meant to me. I often think of how awesome and special my shower was and how touched I was to be visited in the hospital by friends the day the baby was born, and at home in the days following. I will never forget that.