Sharing the Special News with Our Parents

I know there are a lot of crafty ways of announcing pregnancy these days (thanks, Pinterest!), but we (I) really just wanted to have a fun way to share the news with our parents.  Being the first grandchild on either side made the expression "the best parents get promoted to grandparents" the perfect fit for us.

I headed to Michaels and got some goodies so I could create picture frames for each of them.  As luck would have it, both of our parents have some maroon in their house, so I used the same color for both.  For the picture, I made a little sign that said when the promotion would be effective.  Believe it or not, I just got the phrase from Pinterest, but came up with the rest on my own.  I thought they turned out nicely!

Now, we just had to wait for my parents to make a trip up to Dallas so we could tell them on the same weekend.  After several conversations on trying to pin down a date (I was nervous and didn't want to tell them why it was so important to come up), they planned their trip for November 7-11.

They drove up on a Thursday, and we had dinner with them and Ryan and Micah.  On Friday, we had dinner together, and then they came back to our house to stay.  We wanted to share the news with parents first, siblings later.  I told them I had a little gift for them and let them open the box with the frame in it.

Mom was shocked and the tears started immediately flowing.  Dad claims he knew we were going to tell him something 'big' like that. ;)  They were both thrilled.

After my parents headed out of town on Sunday, we stopped by the Hanks' house to share the news with them.  We handed them the gift and they opened it together.  More shocked faces and more tears = two more happy future grandparents. 

We joked that we had thrown everyone off our plans so much that everyone would be surprised.  I was glad - I didn't want people watching me closely and/or guessing anything before I was ready to tell them.

Now, they just need to come up with their nicknames for baby to call them!

Our little surprise!

Colin and I found out on September 30 that we are expecting!

To be honest, we were surprised to find out that we were.  I was late and had taken a test, but it came back negative!  So, we lived through disappointment for a few days and waited until our next chance to try.

Meanwhile, I went to my annual doctor's visit and mentioned it to her.  She offered to do a test in her office.  I hesitated because I didn't know if I should just retest at home myself, but I decided to go for it.  She walked over with the little strip of paper and showed it to me, and I just stared.  Now really, when you take a home pregnancy test, you memorize what exactly you are looking for so you will know at first glance.  A pink line, a blue line, two lines, a plus sign...whatever it is.  Well, I didn't have an instruction manual, so after staring for a few seconds, I smiled because I thought I knew what it meant, but looked up and asked her just to be sure.  Confidently, she said "you're pregnant!"  JOY!  :)

I scheduled my next visit and bolted home to tell Colin!  We were meeting at home before going out to dinner with his parents, so I prayed he would be home sooner than later so we could absorb the news together before heading out, and acting completely normal.

I greeted him in the garage (not abnormal for us), and after my 'hello' kiss, I asked if he was going to say hello to both of us and put my hand on my tummy.  A grin from ear to ear and a "really?!" later, he knew.  God had blessed us with a baby!

I had told him before I went to the doctor that there was a chance they could tell us for certain through my blood work results, but those wouldn't come in for a couple of more days.  He was surprised I knew that day.  It never occurred to either of us that answer was just one more quick pregnancy test away.

Luckily, we were able to compose ourselves enough for dinner.  We knew we wanted to keep things quiet for several more weeks to make sure everything was okay, and even then, we would only tell a few people.