My sister is in her third trimester. Over the weekend, we held a suprise baby shower for her, that didn’t turn out as planned, yet was still a big surprise.
Planning a surprise is a hard task, if you already know how difficult it is to surprise a person who knows and openly vows that no one can surprise them. Her workmate approached me on Facebook and shared the idea that I had been toying with for a month- what were we doing in the days of no technology? God bless Zukerberg.
We formed a WhatsApp group in January and added close friends who contributed toward the big surprise. Each one was to buy a gift of their choice for the day.
The problem with groups that have people who have never met, is that sometimes it gets so quiet you can cut through the thickness of the silence.
We had the challenge of holding on to our phones so that she doesn’t accidentally see the group. She got curious of why people were denying her access to their phones, but could not connect the dots. I even had to suggest that we change the name of the group to something other than ‘Sellah’s baby shower’, just to be on the safe side.
One brilliant colleague of hers changed the name to ‘Business Ideas’. This was so hilarious. Thinking of it later, I thought of what collaboration between ladies can result to. Something great.
Sunday March 5, 2017 was the planned day. I spent the night in her house, and woke up to tidy the house. She woke up an hour later and found me busy at work. She never suspected anything. We had someone to pick her and take her for a pedicure, while others sneak into her house to do the decorations and prepare the snacks.
She didn’t even spend thirty minutes at the pedicure place. She complained of how she was tired of sitting and wanted to go back to her house. She had to return without the pedicure.
When she entered her house, she wondered what the balloon was doing on her wall. Then went to her kitchen to find her colleagues busy at work. That was a surprise big enough. All along, she had been planning to do a home makeover before her maternity leave, because she was expecting her colleagues to visit her after the baby’s arrival.
I came back from church to light insults of how I was so stupid to have been part of the surprise planning.
Happy International Women’s day to all the new friends I made on Sunday. Happy Women’s day mama B. I hope you soon find a better name starting with a B for your last born other than Synopsis.