BTW, Lori approved of this *doctored* image
Well folks, here is our announcement to the world. Lori and I will have a baby sometime around July 15th. The picture above is of an ultrasound (what a strange video camera that is!) of our Baby, who at the time was figured to be 9 weeks and 5 days old.
This is a frontal view and you can make out the fuzzy shapes (from right to left) of a head, two eyes, upper and lower body, two arms and legs (which aren’t fully developed quite yet). Lori thinks our child looks like a gummy bear! During the ultrasound we saw the tiny flashes of a heart beat and the baby was moving it’s arms quite a bit over it’s face!
It was a very cool and emotional experience to go through. We were now watching our child which until that moment was represented by many months of trying, then a crazy colored line on a stick (which confused / surprised a Guitar Hero playing fool like me!), nausea, cramps, tiredness and moodiness!
We were also able to fully surprise all of our family and here’s a photo of two (soon to be) Grandmothers.
We stopped by my Dad’s house and surprised him. Then we were off to Lori’s parents house for a casual get together (or so they thought), we were to have Enchiladas and Pie. Lori presented her mom with a gift which was for Christmas and something she would probably like to display for the remainder of the season. Lori’s mom opened up the gift and was confused for a few moments which was immediately followed with an immense amount of joy, jumping and hugging. Lori’s dad was a little confused at the gift and his wife’s reaction until he understood what it was and then he was way over joyed and proud. I believe he immediately cracked open a bottle of wine and poured me a glass to toast the good news.
Next we composed an email with the image attached, to Lori’s grandmother in Georgia. Lori called her grandmother and told her that she took a picture of her Christmas gift and sent it in an email so she needed to check her email. It took grandmother a few minutes to get her email open and load the message, then she accidentally zoomed into the photo and so she was having trouble figuring out what she was going to be looking at. She panned around for a minute and then we all heard her scream with joy and then begin to cry.
After this, we invited over Lori’s family friends, Jim and Holly (who are like grandparent’s to her) for pie and socializing. Meanwhile we were still waiting for my mom to stop by from her long day / evening of shopping. We decided to wait until my mom arrived to give her the gift (and not tell Holly and Jim just yet.)
After a good half-an-hour or so of normal conversation my mom made it over. We handed her the gift she put it down and said, ‘oh thanks, I’ll open this on Christmas,’ but we insisted she open it now. My mom was confused, because she opened the gift backwards. However, once she realized what the gift was she immediately she started to cry and dispense hugs. Holly was in mid-sentence and when she realized the news / gift she responded with a ‘oh my gosh… I didn’t even know, this whole time…’
It was fun being able to totally surprise our family and make this moment even more special!
So, I’m going to be a father and we’re going to have a baby! It’s all such a strange concept that is feeling more normal each day. I am happy, proud and scared at the same time!
We think the cat knows what’s going on, as she constantly wants to sit on Lori’s lap!
