A New Life

Summer of 2012 was not a good summer. It started out promising enough.. we moved into a new house, we  had a week long beach vacation planned, the boys were excited to have a break from school, and Chris and I had made the decision to expand our family. Then on June 26th, Chris arrived home earlier than expected. 

At first I was excited. I loved it when he got home early. Then I saw his face and heard "I lost my job today".  He was devastated and.. well.. heartbroken. Chris loved his job. He was so proud when he got it. He planned to retire from the company he was with. Unfortunately our plans were not in the BIG plan. He immediately put out feelers for another position. With that, he began to find out a lot of unsavory things from others in his industry about  the management he was under. Them letting him go turned out to be a blessing in disguise. 

Of course, immediately, things around the house had to change. Our vacation was cancelled, his severance package was used to pay the next month's bills in advance, and the family expansion idea was put on hiatus. I waited with bated breath for the first week of July to pass so I could confirm that I was not pregnant. After July 5th.. I was able to breathe easy again because I was in fact.. not.. pregnant. 

I went back to work, money was tight, tensions in our house were even tighter. Then, after 2 months of being out of work, Chris was offered a position with Dell. In fact, they were so impressed with him that they offered him a better position than what he applied and interviewed for! Things were starting to look up so we celebrated.. .Just a little :)

Fast forward a few weeks to the second weekend in September. Chase and I were watching Freaky Friday and at the end of the movie I started crying (its the part before they change back... it's kind of sad, OK!.. never mind).. Chase looked at me and said "Mommy, this movie isn't sad, why are you crying?". After that I got up to pee for what seemed like the 100th time that morning and I started thinking "What is wrong with me?!". Then I realized.. wait a minute.. what is today?? The 8th?? That cant be right.. yes.. it is right.. I must be about to start. So I waited all.day.long. No period. Then that late afternoon we had the boys playing at the park and I told Chris I was late. He was convinced it was because of stress but thought it would be a good idea to take a pregnancy test just to set my mind at ease and I agreed. That night after both boys were in bed, I took my old Dollar Tree pregnancy test. I waited 3 minutes and when I looked.... I saw just the tiniest hint of a line. O.M.G. I made Chris come look at it.. he didn't believe it and said its probably because the test is old. I called Helen over to see and she wasn't sure so I took another test.. again a VERY faint line. Helen and I went to Walgreen's and bought a better test and I decided to wait until the next morning. At 5:30  the next morning as soon as the pee hit the stick, all 3 lines popped up and confirmed.. I was pregnant. I called Chris into the bathroom and he still didn't believe it so I took another one, same result.. baby baby baby. We hugged and I cried  (because that's what I do). 

I immediately texted Helen and called Mandy. Looked up my prospective due date and looked at the Chinese gender calendar. I was so excited! I'm still excited! I cant wait to hold my new baby and get to experience all of the baby firsts all over again. 

Today I am 9 weeks pregnant. I've seen the heartbeat at a healthy 165 beats per minute and I'm due May 15th.. Helen's birthday! We are all happily awaiting the arrival of our surprise blessing!