Telling others the news

I told Heidi on Monday, Nov. 16. Her reaction was priceless! We were in the break room at work (where we were when she told me she was pregnant) and I handed her a Kleenex. She took it from me but looked confused. I looked at her and said, “I’m pregnant.” She said, “No you’re not.” I said, “Yes, I am,” and then I started to cry. Again, she said, “No you’re not!” but hugged me and cried with me. Needless to say, she was shocked!

After telling Heidi, I wanted to know her opinion of telling Roy and/or Kathi because this was the week we were supposed to be drafting vacations for next year. We agreed that I should tell Kathi. It would be only fair to let her know. She would be planning on taking vacations next summer but because that’s when I’ll be on maternity leave, she won’t be able to. I pulled her into the conference room, along with Heidi for moral support, and told her. She freaked out, rushed over to hug me, cried with me and proceeded to ask a zillion questions.

It felt really good to tell a couple of people. I can’t wait until everyone knows. This will all seem more real to me then because right now, I feel like I’m in my own personal bubble, floating along in some alternate world or something.

On Tuesday, Nov. 17, I continued this journey by telling two important people in my life — two women who have prayed for me and supported me for years and years — two women who I love dearly and don’t know what I would do without.

Needless to say, Patty and Melissa were thrilled but shocked as well! I had made a frame that read "Miracles Happen" and put a picture of my positive pregnancy test in it. I had them close their eyes while I got my camera ready and set up the frame in front of them. Their facial expressions were priceless!

We told Jim and Sheila, good friends of ours from church, a few days later. Todd got to spill the beans to them by telling them we got some news and how he was going to be a 40-year-old father! They were VERY excited for us too. Sheila and I hugged and cried. They too know the struggles of trying for years and years to get pregnant. But, God answered their prayers as well as they now have two beautiful children, Jackalyn and Derek.

We told Dave and Julie with a good ol' knock knock joke. I said, "Knock knock." Dave said, "Who's there?" I said, "I'm." He said, "I'm who," and I said, "I'm pregnant!" Of course, there were more hugs and exclamations of joy for us!

It felt good to share our news with all of these people but who we really wanted to tell were our families. The joy that this would bring was almost too much to comprehend. I began worrying that if we told them too soon and something happened with this pregnancy, I would be responsible for taking away this great joy I had given them. If they didn't know yet, and something happened, it would be only grief they would experience with us, not necessarily the joy of knowing beforehand. We made the difficult decision to keep it from our families until Christmas. I would be 11 weeks on Christmas Day and we thought that was close enough to the "safe time" to share by then.

So, we waited and waited and waited for Christmas to come.

And oh how difficult that was!

But the day finally came. Christmas Eve was here.

We traveled to the Howards in Aitkin for our Christmas gathering of presents and fun. After we were done there, we packed up and went back up the road to Grandma Howard's house where another gathering of family, fun, food and gifts awaited us.

I didn't think the time would ever come to round everyone up for a family photo (a tradition we've done for years and years). This year, however, I said I wanted a picture with my camera as I never get a copy of one of these photos.

The tripod was set up and it was my turn with the camera. I got everything situated, flipped on the video button (little did the family know) and quickly grabbed our framed ultrasound picture, came around from behind the tripod, looked at Todd and he screamed, "DeLynn's pregnant!" There is literally a split second where the family is processing the information they just heard and then it's nothing but resounding screams and clapping and tears! It was a great moment.

With my family, it was a bit more low-key.

I told my sister, Kelly, a few weeks before Christmas because I wanted a moment with just her and I. We were at her house for a Christmas gathering with some friends and I pulled her aside. I told her I had an early Christmas present for her and it was something she'd never gotten before but maybe always wanted. She said, "OK!" with her eyes wide with wonderment. I said, with tears already in my eyes, "You're going to be an auntie!" She immediately started crying and we hugged. She told me she had been praying for that for a long time. I felt so blessed in that moment. Kelly yelled for Seth and he came into the bedroom where we were. We told him we were going to make him an uncle. He was very happy for us too!

We went to my mom and dad's house on Christmas morning and got there before Kelly and Seth and my niece, Tierney. We had a gift for my mom and dad and said they could go ahead and open it because we had already given the same gift to Kel and Seth.

My mom said, "It's probably a new picture of you two." I thought to myself, "Oh Mom. You have no idea!"

Todd and I had our picture taken at my sister's house a few weeks back. It really turned out nice so I took that picture, put some text across the top that said, "We're having a baby! July 2010" and put it in a frame that said FAMILY at the top. That's what I wrapped up to give to my parents.

My mom decided to open it and Todd grabbed our camera and flipped it to video even though my mom and dad didn't know they were being filmed. When my mom opened the box and saw the silhouette of the frame, she said, "I knew it." When she turned the frame over and read what the photo said, she put her hand over her mouth, said, "No. No, you're not!" and began to bawl. Meanwhile, my dad had NO idea what was going on. She handed it to my dad and proceeded to cry. My dad looked at the picture, looked at me and said, "You're kidding?!" (That was a VERY popular response to our news from everyone we told!) It was shocking, even to us!