Stories: Three Years Ago...

On July 2, 2007, I took a pregnancy test and discovered that I was expecting! Brian was at work, and since this is not the kind of news that you can give over the phone, I had to live with this knowledge all by myself for several hours. My sister called during the afternoon and told me about a great clothing sale that was going on that week. I knew that the line of clothing I would have to start investing in was not on the list of sale items that she had mentioned, but I couldn't say anything, after all, Brian needed to be the first person I told.

The wheels of my mind began turning. How was I going to tell him about this exciting news? I could leave the pregnancy test out for him to see. I could make a scrapbook page for him. I could give him the tie that I had bought a couple of years back for when I told him he would be a father. Or...I could do all of the above!

So I did. I made a scrapbook page that had the pregnancy test attached to it, wrapped up the tie in a clear bag with a bow, and set it all on the counter where he always put his lunch cooler. And then I waited for him to come home...the longest wait I had ever had!

When he came home, he asked if I had gotten the mail. I hadn't (on purpose), so I "volunteered" to get it while he went inside to relax. I walked out the door and then looked in the window. He put his lunch cooler down and saw the scrapbook page. He did a double take at the page and then looked up (I had walked back inside) with a smile and question.

"Is this a...are you...are we...?"

I nodded.

He picked me up, then put me down with an, "I probably shouldn't do that."

We wanted to be sure that we hadn't misread the test, so the next morning, I took another test (I had purchased two). Sure enough, I was pregnant! We now had to break the exciting news to our families. We decided that since this was my parent's first grandchild, we would tell them first, and since we knew my mother wanted to see my mother-in-law's reaction, we would wait until July 4th when we would all be at my parent's house. Brian had the idea to invite my parents to dinner and put a place card at each plate with the name that everyone had already said they would want a future baby to call them.

When my parents and Faye came for dinner, we were already smiling. It is so hard not to wear news like that on your face! Faye (who has always been able to read me very well) asked right off the bat, "Are you expecting?" I turned, gave her an affermative look, and mouthed "shhhh."

We led my parents to the table since dinner was ready and told them to find their places. Mom looked at the place card and said, "Oh, this is my place." She had wanted to be called "Mama" since Brian already called her that, so seeing "mama" on her place card meant nothing to her! Then Brian showed her his place card which said "Daddy". Oh my goodness! We did not have dinner for another hour after that (the pork chops I had cooked dried out while sitting in the oven).

Mom called all of her family and gave them the news that she was going to be a grandmother. Of course, I got to talk to everyone, too.

The following day, July 4th, we went to my parent's home to go swimming and have a cookout. When we arrived, my in-laws were already there. I wasn't quite sure how to tell them we were expecting, but as soon as my pops-in-law hugged me, I knew. I just quietly said with a smile, "You may not want to hug me too tightly." He figured it out immediately and gave me an extra squeeze. I did the same with my mom-in-law. She responded with, "Are you kidding! I'm going to hug you tight!" They had been waiting for us to have a baby so they were super excited, even if Addie was grandbaby number 4.

The following Sunday we had a family get together at my Aunt Elsa's house. Mom bought me a maternity t-shirt that said, "Who's kicking?" She had me wear it as I greeted all of our family members. Needless to say, everyone was very happy and excited for us (Do you see the little sliver of Mom in the picture? Can't you just see how much joy is on her face?). And so began our wonderful journey into parenthood.