The Announcement, Part 1

Today was a great, wonderful day.  On our drive down to Nashville, we called Seth's folks to tell them our good news.  Of course, they were all very excited, wished us luck, congratulations, etc.  Seth only got to talk to his sisters for a few minutes, but they were ecstatic, just as we'd expected them to be.

Our plan was to wait to tell my parents and brother until my niece went to bed, but when my dad got home around 7 or so, I just didn't want to wait any longer, and my niece was watching TV, so we went ahead and gave them their present.  I told them it was a "Christmas Eve" type of thing because when we were growing up, Mom would always let us open 1 present on Christmas Eve and it was often something we were going to need for that night, like new clothes to wear to the Christmas Eve service.  So since we are doing Christmas with my dad's side of the family tomorrow, we made it a Christmas Eve gift.  It took a few seconds for it to register once they opened the frame, and then they both jumped up from the table to give us hugs.  My brother sat with his mouth open for a minute, and there were hugs all around.  We all cried a little, and it was such a wonderful moment to share.  My brother sent a text picture of the frame to my sister-in-law who couldn't come in to town, so it was nice to still be able to share the moment with her in some way.

One funny thing is that my mom apparently had a dream a few nights ago where she was having to go on a wagon through the mountains, holding our baby.  So funny that she'd dreamt about this grandchild before she even knew it was on its way.

I'm excited for tomorrow too, when we'll get to tell my Dad's side of the family.  My Mom's side will have to wait until Christmas because that side is much bigger and not everyone is in town this weekend.  Then we'll tell my girlfriends and one of our California friends who is coming for a visit over New Years, make some phone calls to our other California friends, and we'll finally be completely announced.  It feels great to share the news with folks, though it still feels so unreal.