Two Pink Lines

“Newly Weds huh? When are you having kids?" 

It was something we heard far too often. I remember every time the question came up I would cringe and think... "kids? I am a kid... kids don't have kids." Five years we would say. We had dreams about traveling to Australia, finishing our masters and spending years and years together "just us" before we brought a nugget into the picture... I am assuming by the title and the initial posts in this blog you are more of aware where this "five-year plan" got us... two pink lines. And by paring a few details... I would love to share the story about how two became three and the day we found out that our family would soon grow by two feet and one heart beat....

I will never forget, it was exactly one week after valentine’s day and I was laying in bed one night while my husband lay passed out beside me. I felt horrible. Come to think of it, I had felt horrible all week long... I was bloated, and nauseous. Good God. No. No way possible. Is Walgreens open at 2 am? Can I sneak out and get a test without him waking up? No way I am pregnant I do this to myself all the time.... just go back to sleep. 

But there was something inside me, literally... no seriously though, there was something inside me that truly knew that my life changed forever. I found out in the most incredible way that I was going to be a mommy.... in a Goodwill bathroom stall. Nope, not kidding.

So that next morning, it was a Saturday, and like usual my husband and I were heading off to do our morning lift. I was trying to be as casual as possible and get time away from him to see if I really was cooking a bun if you know what I am saying.... So I told him to go along without me and I would meet him at LA fitness. He was hesitant and you could tell he was suspicious but being the hard headed female I am, sorry honey, I let him leave without me and I bee lined across the street in our 1998 Toyota Camry to the Dollar Tree to get a pregnancy test.

I will never forget the glares I was getting when I bought the test. I was wearing my college sweater with no makeup on so naturally I looked 14... I remember wanting to say... "chill out folks I am married... its biblical. I am not a statistic." Any way. the Dollar Tree didn’t have a bathroom so naturally I walked next door to the Goodwill to take the test. I could not go home to take it because if he came home I didn’t want him to know just yet. Okay back on track, so I went next door and took the test and within seconds... there were those two pink lines. In that moment I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. But those two pink lines told me that my life was about to change forever in ways that in that moment I could not even fathom. 

After spending about 20 minutes in the Goodwill bathroom stall, I gathered my stomach and nerves off the floor and went back over to the Dollar Tree (high roller I know) and got a tiny little gift box and put the tests in it. I thought it was so cute but now that I think of it I wrapped pee sticks for him. Regardless, I knew that he would be just as shocked!

I got home before him and told our Rottweiler that he would be a big brother soon and as we cuddled and waited for Daddy to get home. I will never forget hearing the car pull into the drive and thinking that the next 5 minutes we will change everything. Change our plans, our hopes, our expectations of what our lives would look like... 

He walked in the door and I said "there is one more valentine’s day gift I forgot to give you last week." I handed him the box and waited for his reaction. He opened the box and his eyes lit up. I knew then he was every bit of afraid as I was but truly knew that what was to come would be a blessing beyond compare. “We are going to have a baby!?” He leaped over to me and picked me up, we laughed, we cried, we couldn’t wait to see what this would bring.

Yeah our plan was a little altered but know it just means, going to Australia with a stroller, completing our masters with our son looking up to us... and spending the next five years of life just "us".

Eli William Keith born on October 16th 2016.