9-20-2009

This year we celebrated our anniversary like any other year. (In keeping with my theme of super late posts...our anniversary is on July 17 th.) We were more excited about our gift of an ice cream maker attachment for our mixer than anything but headed to dinner before going shopping. We had a gift card to Cheesecake Factory (thanks Auntie J!) so that's where we decided on for dinner. I had not been feeling well for several weeks but when I am stressed my symptoms mimic pregnancy. I got incredibly sick during dinner so we cut it short. I did regain enough composer to pick up an ice cream maker (my love of ice cream can overcome most obstacles!) and made Currey run by Target to get me a pregnancy test.

This may sound completely normal for someone not feeling well, but as many of you know I'm not "normal". :) One of the first questions my doctor asks me at most appointments is if I could be pregnant. If I haven't taken a test then they will do a blood test which is much more costly than a home test from Target! So I take pregnancy tests before most appointments just so I can tell my doctor that I'm NOT pregnant and save myself $50. Yes...I am that cheap! When we arrived home I took my test and a second line almost immediately appeared! I began screaming for Currey so he could reread the directions and verify what that second line meant. He was immediately elated. I however spent the next 48 hours in utter shock. I had so many questions, mainly how would this effect the adoption we had been dreaming of. I felt like I was betraying the children we were waiting for without even planning to. Thankfully, we have precious friends and family that God has used to comfort my heart. We still plan on adopting, it will just be on a different time table than we had originally intended. I took another test the following morning and then another that afternoon. All tests continued to confirm that I was indeed pregnant.

We found out our exciting news just before staff retreat. Originally we decided we would not tell anyone until I had reached the 12 week marker but we quickly realized that we would have to tell the rest of staff if we were spending a week together on a lake. We couldn't tell staff before telling our families so we began making phone calls. That was one of the highlights of this experience for me. Our families have been SO incredibly supportive of our adoption but news that their first grandchild was coming sooner than expected was incredibly welcomed news!

I was able to go to the doctor upon returning from staff retreat. I was at 9 weeks and we were able to have our first sonogram. There is no better feeling than seeing your baby for the first time and at that point the experience had become so much more real! The fewer clothes that fit, certain smells making me sick, not being able to focus until I have ________ to eat and watching my belly grow continue to validate that this is a real experience. I have been to the doctor again and Baby Blandford continues to have a strong heart beat. I go again this Tuesday and then a month from Tuesday we will get to find out Baby's gender. I CAN NOT WAIT!!!