Telling the Family

July 31, 2010

We found out I was pregnant on July 7. Our niece was getting married on July 31, and my entire family would be together for the last time until Christmas, so we really wanted to tell them then. We were hoping to have been to the doctor before then, but of course it really doesn’t work that way, and our appointment was scheduled for August 3. (Advice for those of you who haven’t traveled this road yet – your doctor probably won’t see you until you’re 8 weeks. Considering you find out at about 4 weeks, this will feel like an eternity. Get your hands on a copy of What to Expect and wait it out. A sweet friend who’s an OB told me at 5 weeks – you wouldn’t want to go to the doctor now anyway, they wouldn’t be able to see or hear anything and it would freak you out. Hang on to that.)

Now Ramseys are good secret-keepers, and we probably could have called them the next day. However, this is not a virtue of the Heffington clan, and we really didn’t want to make it hard on them. We decided we’d tell Jason’s family first, tell mine Saturday night after the wedding, go to the doctor on Tuesday, and announce it to the world Wednesday. That way, they would only be keeping it a secret for a few days.

Holly Beth and Blake’s wedding was no mere 1-day affair. “We” (the family) “do” (food and décor) weddings ourselves. The extravaganza began Thursday morning with a massive grocery trip, and continued through Saturday evening. Really, the wedding deserves its own post, but I’m still getting up to speed with the whole blog thing. I’ll just say it was beautiful, perfect, and such an incredibly blessed time with family. I was nervous about spending 3 full days with them and keeping the pregnancy a secret, but fortunately we were all so busy that no one was paying much attention to me anyway.

Saturday morning, while we drove from the hotel to the church, we called Jason’s parents. I thought they would get suspicious when we called the house, Jason told his dad to put his mom on speakerphone, and when Tom replied that the phone didn’t have a speaker, Jason told him to call us back from his cell phone. So we had both of them on, and they seemed totally surprised, and of course, thrilled. Jason’s brother Sean was actually in town for something and staying at the house, so they went and woke him up. We were trying to get in touch with Mami and Aunt Ann, so we called Stephen and Sarah, who we thought were at their house. Well, they were not at the house yet, and I’m pretty sure we woke them up. (It was 8:30 on Saturday morning, after all). We finally reached Mami, and as soon as Jason said “we wanted to let you know . . .” her “YES?” showed that she totally knew what was coming. Everyone was so sweet and happy for us.

At the reception, we got a second with Holly and whispered the news to her. The wedding videographer was right there, and though we were turned away where he couldn’t tell what we were saying, he did get her reaction. Which was, of course, so sweet and excited.
After Holly and Blake left, the family was heading back into the reception room to get one more picture of us with our husbands. A couple of the kids asked if they could go change clothes yet, and I fairly yelled at them “No! We might need you for pictures!”. They weren’t too happy about that.

Jason called our niece Lily Beth over, and gave her a folded piece of paper. He told her to give it to my dad, but that it was a secret who it came from. The outside said “Papa, call the family together and tell them you have an announcement to make. Then read what’s inside.” He actually started to open it while walking down the hall, with my mom right next to him, and I kind of had to jump all over him for not following directions. Mom even made me look her in the eye and tell her I didn’t know what it was about. I did it without flinching.

We finally finished the picture, and Daddy got everyone’s attention. The paper said “In March 2011, the ‘Darling Dozen’ becomes a Baker’s Dozen!” The 12 grandchildren have appeared on many of my parents’ Christmas cards as the ‘Darling Dozen’. He started reading, and didn’t get beyond March 2011, when everyone started screaming. In the midst of the madness, I do remember my mother yelling “WHO IS IT?” even though I was really the only logical candidate. I did not think it was possible, but they were even more excited than I expected. And the wedding photographer was there for the whole thing, so I can’t wait to see those pictures come back! I still can’t believe we pulled it off, kept it a secret the whole time, and announced it with everyone together! We could not be more blessed than to share this news with our loving families!

**photos to come**

“18 Praise be to the LORD God, the God of Israel, who alone does marvelous deeds. 19 Praise be to his glorious name forever; may the whole earth be filled with his glory. Amen and Amen.” Psalm 72:18-20