In July 2013, I was convinced that I would get ANOTHER negative pregnancy test. I had taken one every month for 9 months and they were always negative. I just knew this one would be the same. And yet, I decided to take it while Clayton was at work. (Since I'm a teacher, I'm home during the day in the summer! Yeah summer!!). When the test read "positive", I "candled". Candling is a term that Nana (my mom) came up with in college. It's that feeling you get when a rush of fear/excitement comes over you and it feels like a burst of flame in your chest! Nana has a lot of weird words and phrases...you kind of need a Sproul family dictionary to be part of this crew. Whoops, I got side-tracked! After taking a few more tests and pacing the upstairs hallway, I prepared for how I would tell Clayton that we were, in fact, finally pregnant!
When Clayton got home from work, I was chopping fruit in the kitchen, like the home-maker wife that I am. ;) He sat at the counter with the mail as he does every day. I began telling him about the Premier Designs cruise planned for March 2014 and how I was working on ways to earn the trip. He periodically nodded and mumbled words of approval as he opened the electric bill. "I'm really excited about the trip, I'm just not sure who's gonna watch the baby.", I said, as he continued his nodding. Silence. He looked up with a confused expression. "The baby?", he said, "What baby?" I gave a sly smile and looked at my belly. In true Clayton fashion, he began to cry...and laugh...and pace! (He's the crier in this family...although, I gave him a run for his money the next 9 months!) We hugged and processed the immensity of the news! Clayton continued to pace and finally cried out, "I don't know what to do what my hands!! Should I build a crib or something?"
It felt so wrong to follow through with our plans for the evening (mattress shopping!!) when our world had just been rocked! But this is the beauty of life...exciting milestones in the midst of mundane tasks. I remember the night that I told Clayton I loved him and he knew that meant I was ready to say yes to being his wife. We went to the grocery store and couldn't believe everyone around us was just going on with life! And I remember Gramps going to a restaurant the day Grammie died. He told the waitress his honey had gone to be with Jesus just a few hours before. This is life. Highs, lows, but mainly "in betweens". This news was certainly a "high" and we prepared for the reality that our lives would never again be the same. Grateful for grace through it all.
One of the only pictures we took while I was pregnant:
As my nephew Ashton says, "Tante's baby looks creepy!" Yeah, she kinda does in this picture!
We couldn't wait to find out if it was a boy or girl! We were hoping to order a cake at a bakery to reveal the gender to our parents and siblings....but the bakery was closed by the time we got out of our ultrasound appointment. So we bought cake mix, red food coloring and icing. Guess we didn't put enough food coloring in since the "pink" came out more like off-white! Doesn't have quite the same affect when you cut into the cake and everyone looks confused!
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