So – after we found out, it became a hotly debated (mainly in my own head) topic of how and when we’d tell our family and then our friends. It was so exciting to get the positive test results it was super hard to not go shouting it from the rooftops 😉 but I did refrain.
We got the positive tests on Friday and Saturday…….I just couldn’t wait to tell my parents, and we are 7 hours behind them in time here so I had to get to telling them before they went to bed Saturday night. I told my mom on Friday night I wanted to Skype with them, so after getting up I called them. My dad wasn’t at the phone originally, so I had my mom call him, at which time I am sure she knew something was up, because I wouldn’t talk to her alone, haha. They were both sitting there and we were talking, I said say “HI” to Tanner and Logan, and when they jumped up on my lap I said, “Oh – they have something to tell you!” and I held up a sign on which I had written, “WE’RE GOING TO BE A BIG BROTHER AND SISTER!!!” The exact reaction was – Mom – SQUEALED, CLAPPED, SQUEALED, CRIED!!!! My dad was equally happy, he got up, went to the kitchen and came back with a beer for him and a glass of wine for my mom and told me to get a glass of milk to “Cheers” the occasion!! It was great – for the rest of my life I will remember the look on both of their faces. Granted this wasn’t the most elaborate way of telling them, and I must admit I hand wrote the note literally seconds before I told them. It’s just that a huge part of me and Jeanna never believed this would happen on our first attempt, it is such an unbelievable blessing, so I went with it and that’s what I came up with!!
Next, we were off to have pizza dinner with Jeanna’s parents. On the way over we stopped at Kohl’s (again lack of planning on our part), we were looking for a grand mother and grand father onesie or something along those lines. Well – we left with two books – each about how Granddad and Grandma loves me, and a frame that says, “Coming SOON” and the place to put an ultrasound photo, we wrote on a piece of paper ‘July 2013’. Wrapped it all up and off we went to pizza night. While we were eating we gave them the gift bag of these three items. At first there was a little confusion with the two books, but then excitement and “Are you serious?” and hugs and YAY!!!! It was great – and I think, for our amount of lack of planning, all turned out pretty good.
After telling our parents it was possibly the longest few weeks of my life, well except for the TWW, between November 3rd and November 22nd – Thanksgiving. In Jeanna’s family it has become somewhat of a ‘tradition’ to announce pregnancy on Thanksgiving, back in 2010 Josh and Danielle did, in 2011 Jenn and Gary did, and now in 2012 it would be our turn.
Below is the video clip of how we told everyone and a picture of me wearing the shirt we had made.
Next was telling my 3 brothers, across the oceans. During this time my oldest brother, Dean, and my nephew Casey were visiting South Africa (they live in the UK), so when they returned from visiting my youngest brother, John, in Cape Town, I skyped with them. This was the day after Thanksgiving. My mom told them that I had something to tell them, well as soon as I said that I am pregnant I thought for sure Casey would jump through the computer to hug me, he was so excited, it was great – I just wish he was still here with us. Dean was so excited he grabbed the phone and called his wife, Lisa, in England, to tell her, I heard through the phone how excited she was for us too – all in all it was a great time.
Then I called my youngest brother, John, well it was early South Africa time, and late MN time, so I asked my niece, on whataspp, if they were awake, she said they were, so I said ok, I’m going to call. She failed to mention to me that only she was awake – whoops!! I told her to go wake her parents anyways, so she did. I told John and although he was half asleep he was still really happy for us, as was his wife Natalie.
I didn’t get to talk to Kayla again so I told her on whatsapp (a chat app on our phones) that she’d be getting a new cousin as I am pregnant, and this is where the confusion began………You see – Kayla knows I am a lesbian and that means I have a girlfriend, in fact she met Jeanna when we spent a week in Cape Town in February 2012, BUT – she’d also just learned about how babies are made at school, and knew that entails a man and a woman. Therefore, I created a LOT of confusion for my poor 11-year-old niece and I felt TERRIBLE!! I didn’t know she knew how babies were made, she’s just a baby – right?
Well, this created such confusion and I was really concerned because I didn’t want her trying to understand something she just wouldn’t be able to without having it explained to her, and I was also stressing that John and Natalie would be upset with me. Eventually I got my mom awake, told her she HAD to call Kayla right away to attempt to fix this problem……in the end I ended up calling back to John’s house and I spoke to Natalie about it, she thought it was rather amusing and thanked me for having to now having to explain this to Kayla as well, as Kayla had already asked her how our baby was made. I know this is a long story, but it is a part of the “Telling the Family” I’ll never forget 🙂
Telling my middle brother Martin and his wife Debbie entailed two phone calls because Martin currently lives in Johannesburg, and Debbie is the UK with their 3 youngest children. Both were so extremely happy and excited, and this time I left it up to them to tell their children to avoid anymore crazy confusion 🙂
That pretty much is how we told our families…….they’re happy for us, parents ready and excited for another grandchild – # 7 for Jeanna’s folks and #10 for my parents, and brothers and sisters looking forward to having another niece/nephew.
Once again we are truly blessed…….to have been successful in our journey to conception and to have such amazing families who are sharing the journey with us!!
kimberly says
I’m SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Happy for y’all and I can’t wait till you have the baby!!! Love this story it made me laugh and smile! The video is super cute along with the shirt! Congrats you two! 🙂
Melissa Lawler says
That’s amazing. You are so lucky to have such a loving and supporting family.
Tarisa says
These updates just make me warm and fuzzy…. I’m smiling with you….