I can’t believe it’s been almost five months since we took the first pregnancy test. It was New Year’s Eve morning, early as it always is for me, and as I lay reflecting on the previous six-month roller coaster conception conundrum, Amy woke up and asked:“Should I take the test?”
It was still three full days from her next cycle, but she wouldn’t have asked if she didn’t think maybe. I told her let’s do it and she popped out of bed into the bathroom. I followed.
I don’t envy women and home pregnancy tests; peeing on a chemically-treated stick doesn’t appeal to me (although targeting a bug on the ground while peeing in the woods does).
She took to test. Positive. We were thrilled. And completely scared out of our minds. I think I wet myself.
We left the pregnancy stick on the bathroom counter and went about our day. Periodically I’d be in the bathroom, glance down at it, and call out to Amy, “It’s still positive.”
Just to confirm, you know.
Family and friends have asked us why we decided to have a child since we’d decided the previous 10 years not to. What changed?
Until our Southwest road trip a year ago, we were pretty adamantly against it. We had discussed it before on rare occasions, one of us always ending it quickly with, “Are you frickin’ crazy?!?”
But something in early 2007 was changing within us. No major epiphanies or our biological clocks keeping us up at night. Just little changes within each of us that culminated at sunset in Bryce Canyon, Utah; a synchronistic shadow play seeping into our hearts; little things from literature, movies, people we know and don’t, had all added up in a matter of a few months that actually encouraged us to consider the possibility.And so we talked about it upon our return from the Southwest, just enough to incorporate it into our dialogue without overwhelming each other.
We were playing Scrabble at 99 Bottles and I asked Amy:
“So, do you want to have a kid?”
Without missing a beat or looking me as she formed her next word on the board, she said:
“Okay.”
And that was it. We didn’t talk about again until the next morning. A week later we started. In other words, we changed our minds. It’s the next big adventure for us. And we thought The Amazing Race would’ve been a tough gig (we applied years ago but never got called).
Many folks have told us we have no idea what we’re in for, it’s life changing, things will never be the same, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah – but isn’t that the point of a true adventure?
We’re six months in and we got game. Bring it. (We watch too much T.V. and too many movies – that’ll change!)
We’re putting a playlist together for a CD called “B Notes” that I’ll be giving away in lieu of cigars, and one of the songs is “Sweet Life” by Paul Davis:
Oh, you know, all our friends seem to be in a hurry
But darlin' we'll just keep on taking our time
We're living such a sweet life, oh what a neat life
Sharing my love with you
We're living such a sweet life, oh what a neat life
Making our dreams come true
We're making our dreams come true
Sweet!
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