Under the glare of bright lights and the scrutiny of an Inside Edition camera crew, the Coos Bay parents of two sets of twins, John and Tasha Riddle, received a flood of gifts and donations from the community on Friday, at the family's third of four baby showers.

“I keep telling people, four babies means four baby showers,” John Riddle said with a laugh. The couple has already been showered with baby gifts and equipment by family and friends at smaller parties over the last month, and Tasha's sister, Ishaa Rosenberry, will hold the final baby shower in Crescent City this weekend.

Friday's party gathered more than 40 people at the North Bend home of Jim and Kari Lyons, who organized the event for the Riddles with the help of Steven and Robin Giss. A tower of presents awaited the couple and laughter filled the house as friends celebrated the family's good luck.

After facing 11 miscarriages and the hard truth that Tasha would probably never carry a baby to term, the Riddles asked Tasha's childhood friend Raquel Mitola to be a surrogate for their child. Tasha and Mitola went through in-vitro together in August, and are now both pregnant with twins. The friends share a due date, June 7, and two sets of Riddle twins - Tasha is carrying two girls, while Mitola has both a girl and a boy.

Following the whirlwind of media interest in the Riddles, which landed the couple, Mitola, and her husband Jeff, on the CBS Early Morning Show, NBC Today Show, FOX news and CNN, as well as in hundreds of newspapers throughout the country, and in international publications in the United Kingdom and India, Lyons and Giss hoped local and national businesses would be interested in helping the Riddle family.

Community donations

Lyons and Giss spent weeks calling area businesses and national companies like Pampers and Babies 'r' Us, and presented the Riddles with an astounding array of gifts and donations on Friday.

“We were absolutely shell shocked at the response in this community of ours. People's hearts opened up and they were extremely giving,” Lyons said.

The Riddles received numerous donations and gifts from their friends and the community, including four car seats, two swivel chairs, two cribs, a changing table, four portable playpens and lots more. (See sidebar)

“The community support has been so overwhelming,” John said. “I don't even know what to say. It's incredible.”

The owner of North Bend Lanes, Mark Mattecheck, also surprised the family by organizing a fund-raiser in their honor. Bowling for Babies will take place Friday, May 19, and Saturday, May 20, at North Bend Lanes - with 50 percent of the proceeds going to the Riddle family.

“It's so giving and very unexpected,” Tasha said. “It's very generous of Mark to do that. And not only is he doing that, but he gave us a bowling bag and a $50 donation.”

Lyons was amazed by the community response to the Riddle's story, and surprised how many local businesses wanted to donate to the family, especially when no national companies would.

“I'm just so impressed that these local businesses were so generous, when larger companies turned us down. Those companies have plenty of money, and our local businesses don't,” Lyons said.

The Riddles also have been overwhelmed with donations from community members, receiving clothes and toys from families that no longer have any need of the items. Sharon Hennick, of Hennick's Building Supply in Bandon, sent the family several sets of clothing from her twin grand-daughters who have outgrown the clothes.

“Every person I've spoken to has been so open,” Lyons said. “It's really cool that a community like ours has banded together to support a family like this, who is such a nuance, so unique, here.”

The kindness of the community has taken the Riddles by complete surprise.

“You don't even realize how it's going to touch people, or how they're going to want to help out,” John said.

Tasha was also thankful for the great efforts of Lyons and Giss to gather the donations.

“They went over and above to get these things for us. It's incredible what they've done,” she said.

A twist of fate

Despite the terrible luck that had plagued the Riddles for six years, the twist of fate that has given them with four babies has changed the couple's lives, and put Mitola in the middle of their family. While the Inside Edition camera crew's bright lights blinked on and off, one of the babies turned somersaults in Mitola's belly all night long. John's hand spread protectively over Mitola's rounded stomach as Tasha opened dozens of gifts, feeling the bumps and kicks of one of his children.

“It's the girl. The ultrasound showed she was on this side,” Mitola said, touching her left side tenderly. “She doesn't sleep, she's always moving. I told Tasha I've found her wild child.”

While the circumstances may be different, in many ways the two pregnancies are the same as any other.

Tasha and Mitola both tire easily and have been under the watchful eye of family and friends to be sure they don't take on too much work or stress. Especially Tasha, who lost 11 babies before her current successful pregnancy, although the ultrasound and her appointment on Friday showed both she and the babies were doing very well.

Mitola has been receiving a lot of help from her family and friends in Crescent City. As her husband Jeff had to stay home with their children Chase, 13, and Mickelle, 15, a friend from Crescent City, Cindi Ricker, drove Mitola to Coos Bay for the shower on Friday. Ricker also has been helping Mitola by taking Chase and Mickelle to school and other activities.

“There's no better person than Raquel. She is probably the most giving person I've ever met in my life,” Ricker said. “And to be a surrogate, to make that huge nine-month commitment like that, is so amazing.”

Mitola and Tasha were at the center of the party on Friday, opening gift bags and boxes full of baby booties and blankets, with plenty of friends to help celebrate enough for four babies and make up for the heart break the Riddles went through to get there.

The biggest surprise of the night came when Lyons unveiled a gift from Rohit and Noelle Nanda, a feeding table, that serves as a high-chair for multiple babies. While the crescent shaped table has little chairs fit into it to keep the babies in and help feed them all at once, there are actually enough chairs for six babies, not just the Riddle's four. The extra seats got some good-natured ribbing started among the crowd, especially since there were more than four other pregnant women at the party, who promptly volunteered their babies to fill the empty chairs.

“That table is so great. It's such a great idea, that way we don't have to have four high chairs,” Tasha said.

While there are many things the family still needs to prepare for the birth of their quadruplets, between family, friends and the community, the Riddles are off to a great start.