Soo, soo blessed!

Now as some of you know, we recently returned from a whirlwind trip home for my graduation. I did take lots of pictures and plan to update the world on the trip...later. I have had a hard time getting myself to write anything because it was HARD to come back to North Dakota. But, while I leave you in suspense for the actual happenings of the trip, I want you to know that we are

Soo, soo, blessed!

Steven and I have always felt particularly blessed to have the families that we have. It was the biggest 'con' in moving across the country to be moving away from our family/ support network. The only thing that we have been disappointed with having our baby is that for at least a year, the baby will not be close to it's grandmas and grandpas and aunts and uncles.
We understand that many people think we are crazy for being this attached to our families. We're married adults and we should want to live as far away from our family as possible right? WRONG! We have both already been there, done that, and prefer to stay close to our family.

Never has this been more clear than with our recent trip home. Not only were we showered with attention and love, we were given many amazing gifts but more importantly memories to last a long time. As soon as we got off the airplane, my in-laws handed me the first part of my graduation gift- tickets to see Michael Buble that night. Then at the graduation ceremony, I got the second part- a brand new watch. This meant a lot to me as it is "Dorn Family Tradition" to get a watch when you graduate- I'm officially part of the family now ;)
Also, before graduation, I went to my parents house to do my hair, etc. We pulled up and low and behold there was my aunt and her family (that I consider to be my second parents/ family) standing in the front yard. Her and my Uncle, who met up with us later, drove for 2 days with 3 little kiddos (and one big kiddo-my cousin/ best friend) just to spend a few days with us...I cried when I saw them and I don't think it was a pregnant thing.
And the following day, my mom spent her day preparing for my party. She easily had a thousand other things to do, but spent the day doing things for and with me. The food ended up being so great and we were blessed to have so many friends and family come visit! Finally today, I received my graduation present from my family. My mom told me she was sending us one of her dogs, Gretchen. Well Gretchen is the new name of our Ninetendo Wii. Now, we are excited to have the Wii, don't get me wrong...but again it is the meaning behind it. About a month ago, we got our tax return and were faced with a tough decision: buy a crib or buy a Wii. We bought the crib and I told my mom it was the 'hardest decision of our adult life's'.
Now these are just the physical gifts we received in the past week. This does not even begin to include the laughter, games, spiritual experiences, memories, good food, and being taken care of for 5 days straight that we experienced.
I wish I could truly express in words how we feel. But, I'm in tears again thinking about how blessed we are (for the third or fourth time this week). We are truly blessed to be a part of the families that we are. We can feel the eternal bonds and are more thankful than ever to have them. We are excited to bring our baby into the world with such a loving family already in place. We know how incredibly lucky we are to have such close relationships with our families (and our in-laws). We hope that all of our friends reading this who may need an extra boost in a family relationship will take this opportunity to make the effort.
Family is important, and we are sooo, sooo blessed to know that!
We love you Mom, Dad, Talia, Kayley, Jaden, Dakota, Mom, Pops, Greg, Caitlin, Nathan, & Andrew! Looking forward to eternity together :)