**Originally posted in October 2012
It’s 3:03am and apparently 4 1/2 hours of sleep is all I need right now. I’m wide awake wondering if I’m up for a reason, if this is for practice or the real deal? In due time, we shall see. Until then, this is the perfect time to tell the story of how we shared our exciting news with family and friends.
After telling Kent that he’d soon be a father, I knew I had some time to plan out how we would tell our parents. The only strategy was that we’d need to tell all of them in a very short span of time. The plan was to hit the local parents with the news first and work our way out. We had Kent’s mom and sister over for Sunday lunch and we knew exactly how we’d spill the beans. As we sat down to a lovely lunch, Kent prayed a beautiful prayer and ended it perfectly with, “and thank you for our 6 week old baby growing inside Carmen…”. The prayer was officially over! Their mouths dropped, tears fell and we assured them that it was true! Oh, how much I love a good surprise! After lots of questions answered, we washed dishes and laughed at how wonderful it felt to finally tell someone the news.
Now, it was on to Clanton. My approach with my mom was a bit different. I didn’t have a game plan, I was going to feel out the conversation and see where we could take it. After eating brunch and wrapping up the meal, I still couldn’t find an “in”. The conversation just did not lend itself it to an “I’m pregnant” moment. Kent casually asked her to remind him when her birthday was and as she said “November 9th”, I knew that was my chance. “So, that’s 6 days after the baby is due”. It took her a minute to figure out that we weren’t kidding. I don’t think we made too much of a scene in the restaurant, only a few minor screams and tears!
Two grandmother’s down, now it was on to the grandpas!
My Dad had just turned 50, and I thought it would be a wonderful gift if we told him on his birthday. The only problem, he lives in South Carolina, so it would have to be over Skype. I really wanted to be able to do it in person, so when he mentioned coming for a visit the next week, we knew that would be the perfect time. For his birthday, I got him this wonderful coffee table photography book. I wrote a long message with well wishes, prayers and at the very, very end, mentioned that his 50th year would be the year he becomes a grandpa. We presented him with his gift after dinner and as he leafed through the book, I told him that I wrote a little note in the front for him. He scanned it, got emotional and left the table. Hrm, not exactly how we saw this happening. As he returned to the table, he thanked me for the book and what I had written. I could tell that he had not made it to the “grandpa” part yet! I gently nudged him along to reread what I had written. When he finally realized that we were telling him about baby Michael, he laughed and I was so thankful that we waited to tell him in person.
Kent’s dad proved to be the impossible get! After numerous attempts to set up any sort of get together, schedules just wouldn’t allow for anything timely and we were ready for ALL the parents to know! In true Kent and Big Larr fashion, Kent joked with his Dad that though we’d tried and tried to tell him in person, he was making it difficult; that we wanted to tell him that he would be a Pappy again! The way we ended up telling each parent fit them all so perfectly and I’m so thankful for each different way and reaction.
After hitting the 12 week mark, we were finally ready to share our news with the public. After mentioning a hair-brained idea I had to Kent about revealing the news, he was all in. The only words I needed to say apparently were, “stop motion” and “Heidi”. Seriously, can our dog do no wrong in his eyes?! Countless hours of editing and finding the perfect song, we were ready to upload the video.
Our Facebook exploded with the sweetest family and friends expressing how thrilled they were for us. It was the height of our “We’re Having a Baby” tour. It was so encouraging to see such sweet words from so many people. Everyone was finally let in on our secret and it felt so good.