Today we get to the final stretch of this surprise ride we’ve been on since July 2nd. Can you believe it? It feels like just yesterday when I found out I was pregnant and now here I sit, little feet kicking at my belly button, pace growing slower and slower, sporting a little extra winter weight, and I’m overjoyed at this change of life. Much different than my tone here.

I just went through my posts and realized I never told you our story – how we found out we were pregnant. So in the spirit of celebration I shall share with you the chronicle of our latest adventure.

I had just had a really rough couple weeks at work. Hubs was on the road with his band for their scheduled 3 month tour. Work was getting more and more hectic as the summer set in. On top of that we lost about 4 employees within one week. I had been trying to take some time off, even just the weekend, to meet up with Hubs at our favorite festival called Cornerstone Festival and the loss of these employees meant my chances were slim to none.

I was at the point of simply quitting. In fact, Naph dealt with a teary and angry wife plenty of times on the phone before it finally, miraculously, worked out for me to take three or four days off in a row to meet up with him at Cornerstone. I was so thankful, so relieved and I was so excited for a mini-vacation at a place that has always been dear to my heart. I was also extremely excited because this year our favorite family would be along for the ride! The Larsen’s have been with Naph and I since the very beginning. They did our pre-marital counseling, recruited us to a ministry that now has stolen our hearts and became our family in the span of 5 years.

Anywho, they…as in the two parents and the 4 daughters, camped out in an RV at the festival and seeing them was an added perk to getting away from the city for a little bit. So I booked my ticket close to the last minute, and soon found myself on the Amtrak west to meet my hubby a couple days before a big gig on the main stage. I was starting to feel a bit discombobulated but though it was simply my overworked body kicking my own butt.

I got to Macomb, Illinois with about 20 minutes to drive the 20 mile distance to the festival where my Hubs was playing on our favorite late night stage. The drummer, who lives in this town, left me his car and I managed to get to the show only having missed one or two songs. It was so great to walk up to a stage and hear my love of my life belting out a favorite song and then seeing my favorite family in the front row jamming away.

We spent the rest of the night listening to the band and catching up. The next day we met up, me with the ladies and him with the dad.

So a little back story…Naph had been home for a little window several weeks previously, and having not seen each other for quite a while….well…we took full advantage of catching up on how much we missed each other.

So when I met up with Rebeccah that morning I mentioned how I was feeling and asked what the potential of pregnancy was. She asked a few typical questions and by the end of our conversation she had me really thinking I needed to get to the store and get a pregnancy test. I was going to wait three more days before I purchased one but the next night I was driving all the guys home and stopped at Walmart for a couple necessities for the next day. I was feeling pretty crappy by this point, you know, the cramps, sweatiness and tiredness that sometimes sets in before a particularly intense period? I literally felt like I was going to start any minute and the idea of purchasing a pregnancy test was probably just going to be a waste of money. But, alas, I knew I’d never be settled if tomorrow came and no period came with it. So I went ahead and purchased a 3 pack of those magic wands.

I had been told that the best time to pee on a stick was the very first of the day. So…yeah. Remember that for when you have to pee on a stick. I didn’t tell Naph about the test and went to bed nervous and barely got any sleep just waiting to wake up and take the test in the morning.

Finally 9am hit and I was up before anyone else. I went to the bathroom, brought my test with me and took my first morning wizz. Let me tell you. I was practically laughing at myself for how paranoid I was being, even though the test would obviously come out negative.

But it was positive. Obviously.

I just sat there, sweats at my ankles, staring at these two pink lines barely able to breath. I finished up. Talked to myself. Talked to God, and got ready for the day. I didn’t say anything to anyone until we got to the fairgrounds where I saw R and the girls. Naph went on to meet up with Eric again and I told the girls what I found out. They screamed and yelled and were excited and practically the whole fairgrounds found out…before my husband had any idea. Naph had his big show on main stage that night so I didn’t want to let him know this rather distracting news before his big gig that we’d been waiting on for about 5 years now.

Us ladies headed over to the Kids Korner tent where they could do arts and crafts. R is pretty darn talented and sculpted a pregnant woman out of some clay so that we could maybe use that to tell Hubs about our little surprise. By the time he went on stage a few other people knew about the baby and took some pictures of me holding my unpooched belly and after the show I decided he just had to know about.

So, the show ended, and after he got all his stuff together I took him aside and walked over to the Kids Korner tent. I have to say, he wasn’t super pleased about being pulled away from connecting with all his raving fans at the merch tent…but I just couldn’t wait and I decided that this took priority. I brought him to the part where we had stashed the little clay pregnant lady from earlier that day and began to tell him the story of events leading to the big reveal. Right when I was about to say…”so…we’re pregnant!” a mom come up to me asking if I would clip her in to her Baby Bjorn. May I say how annoying and ironic it was. But the message was received and he started to freak out and laugh.

We nabbed our best friend Phil and had him take some quick pictures of us so we could send in the big reveal to our families. We were thinking of waiting until a bit more confirmation happened but we realized that his parents were planning on their 6 month furlough to the states and we wanted to make sure that they didn’t miss their first grandbaby’s birth!

We drove off the fairgrounds to the closest place we could find free wifi and sent our parents an email with the picture above attached. Then we called them all and shared the big news.

So this was the beginning of our new life together with a new little life on the way. God works in mysterious ways, and although He knew this whole thing would be a huge emotional and physical change for me, He also knew that for those very first days I needed people who we could rejoice with, thing about the good parts of this with and rely on for some early words of advice.

Now you know how our little peanut told us she was on her way.

Lovies