Telling our Loved Ones...

As I mentioned earlier, we tried to have a baby for a very long time. Months passed by with no success and it had become a very sensitive subject in our life. We are both very open people and we never let our struggle be a secret. When we finally were fortunate enough to get pregnant, we couldn't wait to share with all of our friends and family! However, we were a bit apprehensive about sharing so early in the pregnancy and agreed that once we saw the baby's heartbeat, we would let everyone in on our little secret!


If you know my husband, you know that he is incapable of keeping a secret! Bless his heart... he knows he should keep his mouth shut, but he just cannot. So of course our work family, Chris' TJC office crew found out about the baby before our ultrasound. After we went to the ultrasound I could not wait to share with my family. As luck would have it, my mother was coming to stay with me for a work conference the same night so I had some surprises to plan.

I would have loved to have told everyone our good news in person, but it just wasn't possible. I have been sick and knew that travel was not in the cards for me. I didn't want anyone to hear about it from anyone other than us, so I made it a point to call my Grandparents before I told anyone else. They are so special to me and I wanted them to know first! They were thrilled when I told them and still call me almost every day to check on me and remind me how happy they are! Precious, I tell you!!!

My mother has been wanting to be a Grandmother(aka *GiGi*) since Chris and I were married. I was really looking forward to telling her because I knew she would be thrilled. Mother arrived at my house late in the afternoon and before she got here I put a little present together for her. I have pictures, which I will hopefully post later! When I handed the package to her she asked "Are you Pregnant?? SERIOUSLY?" with huge eyes!! My family just will not let me get a surprise in!!! We gave her a cute little picture frame with baby written on it that held a copy of our ultrasound photo and a bib that said "I (heart) my Grandmother!" Mom got so excited when she saw her gift that she cried! It was so sweet, and I'll never forget her reaction.

Dad is also really excited about becoming a Granddaddy (aka *Pop*) in the Fall! My parents live on several acres with a pond and are really looking forward to providing "the country" for our kids, just like my Grandparents did. My parents have lots of plans for fun things for their someday Grandchildren to do, so I'm sure lots of memories will be made! I'm only 8 weeks pregnant, and bless my Mother's heart she's already purchased baby bedding and picked out a crib for "my room" at my Parents house. I'm sure that I will be even more appreciative of that when the baby gets here and I'm exhausted and just want to go home!=)

My brothers both know that they are going to be Uncle's and they are really happy for us! I miss them a lot these days and I'm so glad that I have such a wonderful family! It's not perfect, but we all really love, appreciate, and respect each other! Knowing that you are adding to your family really makes you consider the family that you have and what you want your children to see. I cannot wait for my Brothers to hang out with their little niece or nephew!!=)

Chris was in charge of telling his family naturally, but he was waiting for the perfect opportunity to tell them. His Grandparents live in Georgia and North Carolina and we had discussed trying to make it over to tell them in person, we knew they would be thrilled, but as I mentioned earlier travel recently has been out of the question for me. We decided that the best option for us would be an email telling them they were going to be Great-Grandparents. The upside of this is that we knew we would get a happy written response to keep forever. The Allen's certainly didn't disappoint!!! The sent back the cutest, sweetest email response that had us grinning from ear to ear!=) You could just tell how excited they are and as I told them later that night when they called for a chat, I cannot wait to show our Child their email one day! Just adorable!!

Since the Allen's message was so precious, we also told my in-laws through an email sent to both of their email addresses. Mr. Carter sent back a really great message telling us that he is just as excited as we are about the baby and that he hopes Chris will indulge my 3:00 AM pregnancy cravings! hehe! We'll see... ;-) It was really great and offered to help if we needed anything, which we really appreciated.

Telling our friends was really special for me. They all know how hard we struggled and how emotional we were about the subject. Telling my girlfriends was GREAT! I had dreams of telling them in person and doing something special for them since they will be "Honorary Aunts" but the sickness squashed my dreams;-) I did tell them over the phone and of course we all quickly became giggly girls! They were thrilled for us which meant the world!

I cannot wait until our little one gets to meet our loved ones! Hopefully they will be just as influential in our Child's life as they have all be in our lives. I'm so glad that our child will have such a solid support system and will come into this world so loved. I feel so fortunate, so blessed. =) Let's hope the happy times keep coming!!! More for all of us to share!