So remember that trip to Mexico we took way back in July? And all those yummy fruity drinks I talked about enjoying on the beach? Well, all of those drinks were actually non-alcoholic, because at 4 AM on the morning that we left for Mexico, this happened:

After lots of conversations and prayer last year, we decided that we’d, let’s just say, “remove the goalie” and see what happened this summer.  We weren’t in a huge rush to start a family, but had seen lots of people we love wrestle with infertility and miscarriage and wanted to open ourselves to whatever God might bring to our family before we reached a point of feeling desperate.  Two short months later, after being a day late on my period and wanting to see if I’d be able to sip on real piña coladas during our Mexico trip, I thought I’d take a pregnancy test.  And to our complete surprise, it was POSITIVE!

Since it was 4 AM and we had about 18 minutes to throw on clothes and get to the airport, we have no pictures of this fun moment.  I had no cute method of telling Jordan because I was so shocked and sleepy, instead just hollering from the bathroom that he might want to come look at this because I think this is what a positive pregnancy test it supposed to look like!

Our Mexico trip was a funny blend of excited dreaming about what this would mean for our family and desperately wanting to get back to the States so I could take another test.  My planning, controlling self wanted to confirm that we hadn’t somehow mistaken the whole thing (even though there are no false positive pregnancy tests) before I started to really believe this was real.  The first five people I told I was pregnant were all Mexican waiters and bartenders, most of whom laughed after pointing to Jordan and telling me it was his fault I couldn’t fully enjoy my vacation!

One of my favorite parts of the whole thing was that since we were heading to California right after Mexico, we got to tell my parents in person that we were pregnant.  When my mom told my grandparents she was pregnant with me, she ordered grandma/grandpa mugs and sent them to their house.  We ordered the same thing off Amazon while we were in the KC airport and shipped it to my parents’ house (and totally lied and said it was a wedding present for my brother).  On our third morning in California, we wrapped up the mugs and gave them to my parents! My mom knew we were trying, so she wasn’t quite as shocked, but my dad had a face that looked pretty similar to this expression from when he first saw me on my wedding day.  Absolutely adorable!

From there on out, we had so much fun telling my grandma, a few aunts, and some other close friends in California.  My best friend Haley was in town to shoot the wedding, and we were able to slip out one night to take some fun pregnancy announcement pics (the ones sprinkled throughout this post).  We had to grab some random objects from Hobby Lobby to be creative and make it work, but I love having these cute pictures from when the little one inside me was just a tiny little peanut! Check out Haley’s website to see her general photography awesomeness!

Since we got back from California, we’ve loved dreaming about what the future holds and getting to share the news with family and friends.   After we had our first appointment at the OB two weeks ago and got the thumbs up that our little bean had a strong heart and was growing well, we felt ready to share with you all! As of this post, I am about 11.5 weeks along and looking forward to being out of the first trimester for good.

It’s been so hard to keep this secret from all you wonderful readers because being pregnant has affected me in so many ways. I’ve hardly written any faith based posts these last six weeks because so much of what I’m learning is wrapped up in becoming a mama and praying for the little one growing inside me.   Since I’ve felt pretty nauseous and yucky, I’ve been really unmotivated to do much cooking or many house projects (hence the lack of those kind of posts these last six weeks).  I am excited for the nausea to subside soon (fingers crossed, people) so I can jump into some fun baby and house projects and start nesting!

I’m sure I will be sharing more soon about what this process has been like for us, as well as some of our hopes and dreams for our little one, but for now, suffice it to say we are over the moon excited to welcome baby English into our family somewhere around March 13, 2016.

We are so, so grateful and so, so blessed.