Chapter 2: “Telling” the Husband (Or, rather, “Letting the Pregnancy Test do the Talking”)

Originally written on February 18 & 27, 2013

As I heard him unlock the door, I took as many deep breaths as I could force and closed my eyes…

“Hey baybay!” I heard from call from the front door. I stood frozen in the kitchen, too weak to even hold the bowl full of pizza dough I had been attempting to make when my life changed forever.

I called out a quiet, “heyyy…” from the kitchen and waited for what seemed like an eternity for him to join me in the kitchen. The test was on the table between us, so I wasn’t sure if he would see it when he rounded the corner or not. I heard his heavy hiking boots making their way toward me. I heard him make it almost to the kitchen, stop, pause, lean forward and stick his head into the kitchen with HUGE eyes, lean back again for a double-take, lean forward again and look at me. His eyes were huge. His smile was huge…confused…surprised…”Is this real?!” he asked.

I thought I would be able to answer or give an explanation. I couldn’t. The dough was finally too heavy, and I heard my arm drop it onto the counter, the stainless steel bowl meeting the tile with a loud thud. I nodded and my face turned into what I’m sure was an emotional cocktail. He quickly walked over and essentially held me up and kept me from collapsing in a very strong and sure hug. He tried to kiss my drained face. We were speechless. He lead me into the living room to sit on the couch.

If you’ve ever seen two people in shock, that’s how you should picture us. Sitting there frozen, nothing to say, emotions flying and thoughts racing, yet somehow invisible and unavailable for the time being. Being the amazing man that he is, J began to pray over me and our little baby (What! Still crazy to think that there’s a tiny baby growing inside of me!).

Slowly, as more time passed, the speechlessness wore off. I decided to go ahead and take that second test. We stood there and watched that second line appear almost immediately (although it was MUCH lighter than the first). No doubt about it now…we’re pregnant!

Now the excitement was taking over. I mentioned something about getting my camera (and he told me he had already taken a picture on his phone of the first test, which meant a great deal more than you might think…I think it was like further proof that he really was excited and was excited enough to want to capture this moment with a photograph…something that he doesn’t do very often!). That is when and how the following pictures came into being…

I know, we are so attractive.

(I wonder if he realizes I peed on those?!)Goodbye, flat stomach…I will miss you.