Little did we know that when we woke up on August 18h, later that day our lives would change forever. That evening, after taking numerous tests, we found out that Dawn was pregnant. We both initially experienced a wide range of emotions, excited, nervous, curious to name just a few. After nearly twelve years of being together and married for nine, we had finally been blessed with this wonderful gift. Neither one of us was prepared for the range of emotions we would experience, nor could we compare this feeling to any other we had experienced. We both always knew we wanted to be parents and very much looked forward to having children. For a number of reasons, we weren’t sure if or when that day would come. Now that day had indeed come and we began to prepare ourselves for the journey ahead.
We would soon find out that Dawn was five weeks pregnant. We had already planned a trip to New York to visit family for Labor Day weekend. It didn’t seem fair to tell my family in person and tell Dawn’s over the phone. So that Saturday (August 21st) we started the first of three trips to tell members of our family. Under the premise that me and “a friend of mine” were traveling to Jacksonville to watch a pre-season football game, I called Chris to see if he wanted to meet up. Little did he know that the friend was of course Dawn and we were on our way to tell him and Allie that they would soon be an aunt and uncle for the first time. Their reaction was priceless; to this day Allie has by far had the best reaction yet. We gave each of them t-shirts that read “I Love My Uncle Chris” and “I Love My Aunt Allie” and I’m pretty sure they were as excited to get them as we were to give them. It was great to see them and share the news, but less than 24 hours later we were back on the road to Atlanta.
The second leg took place the following weekend. We left for Texas on August 28th. We told Dawn’s mother that we had found cheap tickets into San Antonio so we decided to come and visit for the weekend. As we did for Chris and Allie, we told Pat, Andy, and Dawn’s grandmother by giving them t-shirts. They all were both surprised and very excited. This too was a brief trip and we were headed back to Atlanta the next day. Although it was short, it was great to see them and even better to be able to share our news with them in person.
We left for New York on September 1st. All of my family was waiting on us when we finally arrived so we were able to tell them all at the same time. Like everyone else, they were pretty surprised and extremely excited. We spent about a week in New York and were able to spend a lot of time with family and friends that we don’t get to see very often. We were also able to celebrate Melissa’s 40th and Uncle Pete’s 60th birthdays with them. It was special not only to celebrate with each of them, but also to see all the other friends and family who came for the party that we hadn’t seen in a long time. We returned to Atlanta after Labor Day a little tired, but also very excited that we were able to share our news with all of our family in person.
The rest of the world would have to wait however. We wanted to get through the first trimester before we shared it with everyone else. Little did we know how fast that time would go!
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