The happy news

Thank you so much for all of your sweet comments about our pregnancy! Your love and support mean so much to us. Matt and I have wanted and prayed for this baby for quite some time. As a few of you know, we were actually in the middle of infertility appointments and gearing up for a potentially long road ahead when we learned we had finally gotten pregnant all on our own. To us, this baby is a sweet little miracle and we are so grateful he is on his way.

We loved keeping him as our own little secret for so long (we just barely finished telling our families three weeks ago because we wanted to tell them in person), but it’s so nice to be able to share our excitement with everyone now! I’m looking forward to sharing plenty of details with family and friends through this blog – beginning with this post about spreading the news.

After waiting for so long for a positive pregnancy test, I wanted to make the news really special for Matt. There were a few glitches that day (remember when our bumper flew off on the freeway? Yep, that was the day) but I was so anxious to tell Matt that I didn’t mind. We finally made it to our beach and set up our picnic just as the sun was beginning to set. I made Matt take a couple pictures and then left the camera running on video while I gave him his “Valentine’s gift,” which was a little board book I’d put together with pictures and a simple poem about reasons I love him. He already knew them all – until he got to the last page, that is.

Matt has always wanted to be a dad, and his reaction was even sweeter than I’d imagined. I’m so glad we have it on video (that first picture is a freeze frame). We hugged and kissed and laughed and cried, and spent the rest of the evening celebrating. One of my favorite memories from that night is the surprise Matt had planned for me. He had learned “Then” by Brad Paisley, which is one of our songs, and played it for me there on the beach. The lyrics “I can just see you, with a baby on the way,” suddenly held new meaning. Matt got a little choked up as he sang them and the love in his eyes melted my heart. That man was meant to be a daddy.

My parents and sisters knew early on but we waited to tell my brothers in person. We gave the boys gifts addressed “To Uncle NAME, Love Ashley, Matt & Baby D.” Eight-year-old Kaleb read it, looked up, and exclaimed, “You adopted a baby?!” Not quite. =) He got it right on the next try.

Then, when we found out that it’s a boy, we sent my mom a bouquet of blue and white flowers in a blue vase. The babies were most excited about this development because now they’ll have a niece and a nephew. They like to say they’re “double uncles” now.

We announced the big news to Matt’s family at a family get-together at his parents’ house when we were in Utah. The announcement came complete with blue “It’s a Boy!” shirts and a huge balloon bouquet. We were glad we’d waited to share the news in person – it’s just so much more fun when there are hugs and tears and high-fives involved!

Skype came up big for many of those that we couldn't see in person and we loved our webcam celebrations, too! The screenshot option was clutch for capturing fist pumps and the like.

And then we announced it via the internet and were overwhelmed by your support. Thank you again! I had planned on giving a little pregnancy update in this post as well, but it got really long, didn’t it? I’m all typed out, so I guess that part will be coming up next!