Finally... Making the Announcement!

We had such an exciting weekend since we finally got to share our good news! These are some of the highlights from telling our families about it this weekend:

Our Alabama Family
We spent most of the weekend in Alabama, where my mom had invited my brothers and Stephen's parents over to celebrate mine and Stephen's birthdays with a special birthday dinner. Stephen and I debated forever over how to make the announcement to this group of people. We finally decided to surprise them by showing them a 3D picture from my 9 week ultrasound. After supper, Stephen asked everyone to gather around our laptop to see a "cool picture" he'd taken. No one suspected anything at that point because Stephen shows them pictures on our laptop all the time. Once they were all watching, he pulled up the ultrasound, and we waited... and waited... and no one said a word! It had never occurred to me that none of them would be able to recognize a 3D ultrasound because the technology for it is so new that none of them had ever seen one before!

Finally, mom's boyfriend, who's a paramedic, looked at the picture and exclaimed, "That's an unborn baby!" Still, no one said a word, so I blurted out, "That's our unborn baby!" I had expected something like screams and jumping up and down, but they were all so shocked that they were speechless! I guess we surprised them a little too well... I thought everyone knew we wanted to have kids and that we wanted to have them soon, but looking back on it, I don't remember ever talking directly to our parents about it. Most of our friends and family have been asking us forever about when we're having kids, but our parents never did... they probably just didn't want us to feel like they were pressuring us, which I certainly do appreciate. But I really thought they would kind of be expecting us to get pregnant... I mean, we've been married for seven years, we're done with school, we've moved back to the South, we're getting closer to 30... But when I think about it, they probably expected that we wouldn't have a baby until we had a house, and a dog, and a garden... That definitely would have been my preferred progression of events in an ideal world, but Stephen and I took so long to get through with school that we decided to buck convention and have a baby instead. So... I wanted to surprise our parents, and we apparently accomplished that! I didn't mean for it to be that much of a surprise, though! Once it sank in, they started to get excited, and started asking us questions, and checked out their little grandbaby's picture up close.

My brothers, on the other hand, have been asking us about babies for quite awhile, so they weren't shocked speechless. They immediately gave us both enormous hugs, which meant a lot to us. I think they are as excited as teenage guys could possibly be about a new baby in the family.

Dad and Sonya
Dad's reaction is probably the most memorable of all. I called him Sunday night, and after saying hellos, the conversation went something like this:

L: What would you say if I told you that you are going to be a grandpa?
D: No way.
L: Well... you're going to be a grandpa!
D: Yeah, right.
L: No, really!
D: You're just pulling my leg.
L: Seriously! I've heard the heartbeat, I have pictures... haven't you noticed how tired I've been lately?
D: What?!?! Oh my Gosh...

Now, imagine Sonya being in the room with Dad and listening to what he's saying, but not knowing what he's talking about. I could hear her in the background, and her reactions to Dad's reactions went in a progression like this: "What?" "What?!" "WHAAAAT?!?!?!" Imagine her voice going from normal to screaming through the progression, and that's pretty much what happened. It drove her crazy not knowing what Dad was finding out, then when she got on the phone with me and I told her news, I got the screams that I'd been hoping for. It was hilarious.

Once the news sank in with Dad, the first thing he wanted to know was if "the apple has a stem on it." After being informed that it's too early to tell, Dad said, "Not if it's an Ing, it's not!" Only my Dad... apparently he's ready for a boy in the family! Dad asked me lots of questions, besides the one pertaining to the stem, and he seems really excited about having a grandbaby. He even thought to advise me to raise our grocery budget since I will need to be eating more food now. It was very sweet.

Memaw
I will never forget telling Memaw the news. Memaw loves babies. She loves them so much that she had six herself. She was so happy to hear that we're having a baby that she stayed on Cloud 9 for the entire 30 minutes I talked to her. I felt like I had just told her she'd won the Texas Lottery Jackpot. I've never seen or heard her be that excited before, and it was really special to me that she is so happy for us.

Meme
Stephen's grandmother, Meme, also loves babies and when she got the call that we're having one, she was elated for the entire time she and Stephen talked. Stephen had just seen her the previous day, but decided not to tell her then because we hadn't told our parents yet and he didn't think she could keep the secret from them. Meme cracked us up when she lovingly called him a "Booger" for not telling her the previous day. It's so much fun to bring joyful news to Meme. I don't think we've ever had such good news that made so many people so happy, and it's really cool to bring this kind of happiness into someone's life.

My Sisters
I thought it might take me days to get in touch with Jennifer and Emily, but they both took time out of studying for midterms and working on projects for school to talk to me on the phone Sunday night. They were both really surprised, excited, and happy, and Jennifer stayed on the phone with me for an hour to ask me all about how my pregnancy is going. Their support for us is so sweet, and meant a lot to me.

Leslie
Stephen's cousin Leslie probably had the most touching reaction of all. She has always been incredibly sweet and loving to us, and she had already told us in August that she was ready for us to have a baby. When Stephen called her Sunday to tell her the news, she was so happy that she started crying! She was so happy about what a blessing the baby would be for the family. Sweet Leslie!

Jenny and Inna
Over the weekend I saw my best friends from high school, Jenny and Inna, at Jenny's baby shower. They are probably the only friends who I'll have the privilege of telling in person, face-to-face, since all my other friends live so far away. I loved their reactions to the news. I had gotten to the baby shower early to help set everything up, but I wanted to wait until the end to tell Jenny and Inna about our baby. After it was over and people had started leaving, I sat down with Jenny and handed her a card for her baby, Isaac. Inside the card, I had written a note from our baby to hers that said something like this: Dear Isaac, I am really looking forward to playing with you and growing up together. I know we are going to be good friends, just like our mommies. I'll see you in May. Love, Baby Brooks. Jenny read it, and looked a little confused, then read it again, and started squealing, bouncing up and down, and hugging me. Inna read the card and had the same reaction. I will never forget the looks on their faces, it was priceless to see my friends so genuinely excited and happy for me!

We've also gotten many, many sweet and thoughtful messages from our friends and family online. Thanks so much to everyone for the good wishes!