Surprise!! Part One

If there is one word to describe the story behind our daughter Bethany, it’s surprise!

It was June. We’d only just become parents to Anaya on April 22nd. Dave’s mum was visiting and it was the day of the World Cup soccer game of Australia vs  someone I can’t remember:) We had planned an after church party to watch the game. I had begun to wonder if I might be pregnant. I had been pushing the thought away, thinking nah, it’ll just be like all the other times where when I finally broke down and took a pregnancy test, the next day my Aunt Bertha (aka period) would arrive. And so I had just kept waiting…but I could take the suspense no longer. I had to take Dave to the church early and needed to stop and buy milk on the way back home and so I bit the bullet and bought the test.

When I got home, I quickly took the test and refused to even glance at the stick, but instead hid it in our room for the required 2 minute wait time. Act casual, just act casual. I finally worked up the courage to go and look at the result, feeling sure it would be negative. I picked it up and…two lines. What??? My hands started to shake. Two lines??? I’d never seen two lines before…I double checked the box. Really? I was pregnant?? Holy smokes!! I was in utter shock…I remember feeling giddy, scared and shocked all at once. I wanted to run out and tell Lynne, but I knew I had to tell Dave first. Act casual, just act casual…yah right!

Unfortunately, I had to wait almost the whole day. First there was church to get through…then a quick lunch and then the game with a whole group of people at my house…Dave and his mum kept asking if something was wrong…I assured them I was fine when in reality I was bursting inside! After the game I went for my usual Sunday night swim and then finally…at 8pm…I asked Dave if I could show him something outside. How lame was that? Of course he knew I was up to something. We went into the backyard where I turned to him and asked, “are you ready for our lives to get more complicated?”. He smiled. “yes”. I said, “well, they just did” and I pulled out the stick. He grabbed me up in a tight hug, utterly ecstatic. We stood in shock…happy, shaking, scared. We should wait to confirm it…we should wait to tell our families until next Sunday (Father’s Day). Well that sure didn’t last… As soon as we came back in, Lynne knew something was up. Dave grinned at me, “Can I tell her?”. I relented, “ya ok”. Then we Skyped with Kylie and his dad. “Kylie, what does it mean when there are two lines on this stick?”, “Jen’s pregnant” she replied matter of factly I think it was the next day that we took my mom out to lunch and told her. “Anaya has something to tell you” out came the stick again, “What?!?! You’re pregnant?! woohoo!” We had to make a little T-shirt for Anaya that said “I’m going to be a big sister” because there weren’t any in her size…I guess not many 3 month olds need to announce the coming arrival of a sibling Everyone wore cheshire grins when we told them. Remember, we weren’t supposed to get pregnant, we hadn’t been able to for over two years and now we were going to have two little muchkins within a year!

And so the journey towards having two children 11 months apart began…stay tuned for part two…