The Day that Changed Our Lives (Post #2)

So contrary to most people’s beliefs, Henry and I really love kids.  It’s funny crazy how people jump to the conclusion that because we’ve been married for “so long” and are “a little older” and don’t have any kids, that must mean that we hate kids and never wanted any of our own.  Umm, wrong!  We absolutely adore kids!  Like seriously, we’ll babysit anybody’s kids any day – anybody’s!  To make a long story (somewhat) short, the planners in us wanted to wait until we were good and done with grad school and established enough in our careers before starting a family.  Ya know, trying to be responsible.  There’s another side to our story though – the side that people didn’t see and were sometimes a little insensitive to.  You see, there’s lots of things that have to line up just right to conceive a child.  And after several doctor’s visits, tests, pokes, and prods, I was told that I may never be able to conceive on my own.  (My ovaries weren’t releasing any eggs and instead I was diagnosed with polycystic ovaries.  This is not conducive to making a baby.)  My doctor was certain that I could be “fixed” with a little medicinal help.  Henry and I talked (and prayed!) a lot about our options and decided that we wanted to try to do it without any help*.  We put our trust in God that if it was His will for us to be parents, then He’d make it happen in His perfect timing.

We went about life as usual. 

Engineers and crazy puppies by day, ninja turtle family by night!

We moved over 1,000 miles across the country.

Just as we had gotten somewhat settled in our new place in a new (gigantic!) city, as if our lives hadn’t already just changed, we found out we were going to be parents!!

I had been feeling kind of tired for about a week or so but assumed it was just the excitement of moving and being in a new city and staying up way too late enjoying our time with family all catching up to me.  We took a drive one weekend down to Austin to celebrate our Goddaughter’s 3rd Birthday, and on that THREE hour drive, I could hardly keep my eyes open – we left Dallas at NOON!  And we may or may not have stopped like 3-4 times (in three hours!!) for me to go to the bathroom.  I seriously could not hold it!  It was then that we thought “hmm, maybe”, but didn’t want to get our hopes up just yet.  My body has done some weird stuff in the past, so we decided to just enjoy the weekend with family and wait until we got back home to test.  Besides, I hadn’t missed a period yet either, so there was no use in running out to buy an at-home test just yet.

 Sidebar: This is our super cute Goddaughter, Anissa, 
the day after her big birthday party!  

She's way too cute and I couldn't help sharing her cuteness with you.

The Thursday after our Austin trip was Henry’s birthday (and four days after my period was supposed to come – sorry for the TMI!).  We decided that would be the day to test at home.  That first half of the week was the longest three days of my life.  Thursday morning finally came, and the test couldn’t have been more positive!  POSITIVE!!  I took pictures of that first test (because I’m crazy), but then I deleted them – wahhh!  Let’s just say that the test line was wayyy darker than the control line, indicating that it was very positive, and that I was very pregnant.  However we didn’t know just how verrrry that was until a few weeks later.

I ran into the other bathroom where Henry was getting ready for work and just held the very positive test up to the shower glass door.  He smiled.  I smiled.  We both went to work that day with big ol’ goofy smiles on our faces – we were going to have a baby!

And that was the day that our lives changed forever.

*We have absolutely no issues with those couples that opt for medical help in getting pregnant.  I’m sure if lots more time had passed, we may have reconsidered our options.  But at that time, we truly felt – and still feel – like the best thing to do was turn it over to God.