So... We're having a baby!

I have decided to slowly update everyone on our pregnancy journey. Many of you haven't heard the story of when/how we found out our first time seeing our baby and so on and so forth. So here goes...

Saturday 8/30/08
Rick's parents were in town bringing Melissa to New York to start her first semester at Nyack College. I (Rosie) tumbled sleepily out of bed to the bathroom. I decided "hmmm let me take a Home Pregnancy Test... just in case." As I was leaving the restroom I took a peak at the digital home pregnancy test and it said "PREGNANT". My mouth dropped. I thought I was seeing things and blinked a few more times to "help" my eyes focus on the test. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO WAAAAAYYYYYYY!!!!!" There it was staring at me straight in the face, the word "PREGNANT."

I fumbled out of the restroom still half asleep looking for a camera to take a picture of the result. No one is gonna believe this!!! So I had to take a picture just in case the result disappears from the result window.

Meanwhile, Rick heard a door open, a drawer slam followed by a door closing. I can't even imagine what he thought i was doing. I had wanted to tell Rick in a creative way that we were having a baby, so I had been planning for when that day would come. But instead, I came in the bedroom woke him up and said, "Guess what?" So much for creativity and plans!

We sat in our bed that morning in shock, but with huge smiles on our faces. All we kept saying to each other was... "Can you believe it?!"

We decided not to tell anyone yet because it was still early. But boy was it hard. We ended up telling our families the very next day....

We are excited, elated, overjoyed, scared, worried and just giddy with the thought of growing our family. I'm just beginning to come to terms with the fact that in a few months we will have a child to love and care for. And even in this early stage I have felt a new and strong sense of love for my child. I wanted to make sure that my baby new how much I love him/her even before we met. So I began writing letters to my baby which I plan on giving to him/her to read when he/she is old enough. They are letters of love, acceptance and just the many thoughts that run through my head as I think about holding him/her in my arms. My prayer is that those letters will not only be a wrtitten demonstration of my love, but that it will ultimately be but a small reflection of God's unconditional love and acceptance.

My prayer for my child, myself, my husband and you is that we would cultivate a life of prayer in solitude, in that secret place where only you and God meet. Where he reveals to us that we are His Beloved!

And so I leave you with a quote from an article written by Henri Nouwen:

“Prayer, then, is listening to that voice—to the One who calls you the Beloved. It is to constantly go back to the truth of who we are and claim it for ourselves. I’m not what I do. I’m not what people say about me. I’m not what I have. Although there is nothing wrong with success, there is nothing wrong with being powerful, finally my spiritual identity is not rooted in the world, the things the world gives me. My life is rooted in my spiritual identity. Whatever we do, we have to go back regularlty to that place of core identity. –“Parting Words”

~Rosie

P.S. In a few days I will update you with the story and pics of our first and second Ultrasound. Stay tuned!