Good news!

The gift came at a time when I least expected it. In fact, it took me a while to even realize that it had arrived. Little by little, I began to notice the signs.

First, I became aware that I was extremely tired all the time, and more so than usual. At first, I thought I was just tired from adjusting to the first week of my new class. We were in class for eight hours a day, constantly reading, writing, or participating in workshops that stretched our minds. But then I went to the gym, intending to run through my normal routine. My normal amount of reps were cut in half, as I found it increasingly difficult to complete them. I was out of breath, and my body was telling me that it was time to rest. I hadn't been working out as consistently as I'd wanted to lately, but was I really that out of shape?

The second week of class, I noticed that my trips to the restroom had doubled. It seemed like every time we had a break, I was running to the bathroom. However, I just chalked it up to the fact that I drink coffee every morning, and we "graze all day long." By the end of the week, however, there were other things that I just could not ignore. Certain body parts were very sore, ultra-sensitive to the slightest touch. Some of my clothes were starting to fit a little more snugly around the waist, and a trip to the scale revealed that I had gained a few pounds recently. I was even a little moody, and I thought, It must be PMS. Yea, that makes sense. Wait! When was the last time....? A glance at my calendar revealed that I was late. Could it really be? Was I pregnant?

I looked through my cabinets for a home pregnancy test, but there were none left. It was Father's Day weekend, so there would be no time to go to the store until Monday. Getting through the rest of the weekend was difficult. It was constantly on my mind, but I didn't voice my suspicions to Wes, just in case I might be wrong. On Monday, class could not get over soon enough. It was all I could do to make myself concentrate. As soon as we finished for the day, I drove to the store to buy the test. The car ride home was difficult too, as I was anxiously anticipating the result.

At last, I got home and took the test. It was the longest two minutes of my life! As I was waiting for the result to appear in the window, I realized that I was holding my breath. I exhaled and then cautiously peeked at the result: two lines! There were two lines in the window. Yes, I was pregnant! I smiled and then threw the test away, making sure it was hidden underneath the papers in the trash can. I would have to think of a creative way to tell Wes. The first thing I did was get down on my knees and thank God. We'd been waiting almost three years for this baby. Just when we had both given up hope, God opened up my womb. I was going to be a mommy. I couldn't believe it!

I had all these creative ideas of how to give Wes the news. I thought about waiting until we were on our anniversary vacation in two weeks, but in the end I only held out for two days. On Wednesday morning, the alarm clock went off at 6:20 as usual. I reached over to press the snooze button so I could sleep for a little longer. At 6:30, I rolled over to see that Wes was already awake.

"Good morning," I said, laying my hand on his shoulder.

"Hey baby. Did you sleep good last night?"

"Yea."

"That's good, baby."

This is our routine every morning. Before he could reach over to hug me, though, I said, "I have something for you." He gave me a puzzled look, as we only exchange gifts for birthdays and Christmas. Then I reached into the drawer of my nightstand, pulled out a bib, and handed it to him.

He unwrapped it and looked at it for a few seconds. "Oh, for the baby, right?" he said, forcing a half-smile. I nodded, waiting for the lightbulb moment. He looked at it again, this time reading the writing on it: I love daddy. Then he looked at me very seriously, his jaw set. I nodded again, a big grin spreading over my face.

"Wait...no...really? Really?!"

"Yea!"

"We're going to have a baby?"

"Yes, we're going to have a baby!" Now we were both smiling. Wes laughed a laughter of pure joy, hugging me tightly.

I want to remember that moment forever.

I went to the doctor on Friday, and they confirmed what we already knew to be true. Our due date is February 18, 2008. We already have some names picked out too - Grace if it's a girl (because it is totally by God's grace that we have a baby) or Isaac if it's a boy (the name means laughter, and he was the child of promise for Abraham and Sarah, who was also barren for a time).

Stay tuned. Next time, I'll write about how we told our parents and church family.