An eventful week...

The rumors are true. We are having a baby! I will give you a second to take that in before we move on.

To be perfectly honest, it has not completely sunk in yet. I am aware of the situation, but my mind has not fully grasped the concept. As we are letting people know, the reality is becoming even more real. The reality is that I am going to be a father, and as scary as that may sound to us all, it is now upon us. There is no avoiding the fact.

I am planning on starting a "baby blog" in the coming days, but for the time being this blog will suffice to chronicle the beginning of this journey. Especially since the decision to have a baby is tied to my legal status in the United States. Let me elaborate.

When we first got married, our decision was to wait five years to have a child. There were several factors that contributed to making this choice in the amount of time we would wait. The biggest reason  being the state of  my residency. I would not be comfortable with starting a family if I could not legally be in the country. For one, it is difficult to get a job with benefits. It is also a struggle to get a loan to buy a house or just to have credit. There is also the ever present fear of being deported and separated from your family. For people with illegal family members this is a very scary thought that is always present.

When I became a legal U.S. resident, I felt more comfortable about the idea of having a baby. For starters, I made a great choice when it came to choosing the mother of my children. She will be a great mother, and that is one of the biggest reasons I chose to spend my life with her. We have a good, solid relationship that will help us transition into our role as parents. Society is quickly changing around us, but I still believe in the value of a two-parent home. Forgive me if that sounds "politically incorrect."

So on our third anniversary we made The Decision. I knew she was ready, and I felt that I was also ready to face the challenge. I felt at peace with the decision, and I knew that was important. I knew that every single one of my concerns would be answered in God's time. We also have a great support group. Our family, friends, and church will be with us every step of the way.

Our anniversary is in September. Fast forward to the beginning of this month. My wife's health was was giving us some strong hints, but we were hesitant to label them as pregnancy symptoms. At times, my wife has had health issues that would lead us to believe that she was pregnant. She would feel sick to her stomach for a few days, and the thought would slowly creep into our minds. We would buy tests, but the results were always negative.

A few weeks ago she began to feel some of the same things, but she told me she felt different this time. She made a doctor's appointment to get a blood test, and if she wasn't pregnant we needed to know what else could it be. I started to get anxious. I wanted to know if she was pregnant, and if she wasn't I was concerned about what else could be wrong. On Thursday she made an appointment for the following Wednesday. This was too long of a wait for me.

By Tuesday I was desperate to know the Truth. My wife also wanted to know, but for some reason she was slightly more calm than I was. I was pacing all over the place, as I am apt to do in certain situations. She finally relented and I was off to find a pregnancy test. I walked to Circle K, and when I struck out there I drove to several other places in search of the tests. I have to say that the  pilgrimage helped to calm me down slightly. I found the tests. (I will not say where, unless I can negotiate some online advertising for free diapers.)

I returned to our house, and I gave my wife the test. She made her way upstairs, which left me downstairs alone with my racing mind. I wanted the test to be positive. We had been disappointed before, and we were getting anxious. So I waited some more. A million thoughts were going through my mind. I could not tell you a single one.

Pregnant.

Several agonizing minutes later, my wife comes quickly down the stairs. I knew from the way she was coming down that we had a positive test. I went into a state of semi-shock. I can't remember her exact words, but she showed me the test. The result was faint, yet unmistakeable. It was there. A little blue cross that meant something much bigger. We were going to be parents. We are going to be parents. Even as I write this, the Truth is slowly sinking into my mind. 

The result was faint, so she took another one the next morning. (That is the one pictured here.) Then she went to her doctor's appointment where she had another test, as well as a blood test. The results for the blood test would not be know until the next morning. Being the constant skeptic, I decided that I would wait for the result of the blood test before I would fully believe that we were having a baby.

We called the doctor's office the next day, and of course the results were not ready then. So we waited some more. And we began planning how we would tell our family and friends. When the results came back we had a definitive answer.

We are beginning a new journey, and we couldn't be happier. We have had such a great time telling our parents, family members, and friends. This is an imposing task before us, but we know that we are not alone and that makes us feel good. We already love this baby beyond anything that could be written in this humble blog. He or she will be surrounded people that love and care for him.Or her. (It will be hard to write about him or her, until we find out whether he is a he or a she.) That love is evident as we were given our first gift by a special, thoughtful, wise friend.

There will be no questions about where my child's allegiances will lie.