We're having a baby!!

Friday was a wonderful night! We had dinner with my Dad, Kathy and Cory at Steak-n-Shake which is a treat in itself...then we visited an uncle that was visiting from out of town. Cliff and I were in seperate vehicles because he'd met up with us right after football practice. On the way home just as we were driving past Sonic in Covington, I called him on his cell and asked him if he wanted to stop in WalMart and get a pregnancy test. My cycle has been so weird that I really didn't know when it would be ok to test. Well, we got an Equate brand test-the two pack. We got home and I took one. I figured it would be negative and I'd test again in the morning. Well, we both were glued over the stick and thought we saw a line developing after about a minute. However, we didn't want to get our hopes us. We've been trying for a few months now, though this was the month we had originally wanted to get pregnant because of how timing would work out with my maternity leave being at the end of the school year. During that agonizing minute we decided to do something else and come back in a few minutes. Cliff went to the bathroom and I came into the kitchen to email with Jenny because we were making plans to have lunch on Saturday. A minute later I hear Cliff say "come on" but could tell he was no longer in the bathroom...which meant he would have had to walk past the test to come call me. So, I got up from the computer walked around the corner and I said "did you look at it???" and he replied "...come see..." so I did...and there was definitely a line!! However, I was determined not to get my hopes up, so we did what any obsessed hopeful mommy and daddy would do-we checked out www.peeonastick.com to compare our test to the pictures of positive result tests that others have posted. Sure enough, our plus sign was much darker than some of the ones we saw. We were in complete and total shock, but soooo excited. I can't even remember exactly what we did, but I remember feeling like I was having a hard time breathing and just not really knowing what to think. (I even found it a little neat that technically he knew before I did...) He's been such a huge part of my coping with our failed months of trying and he's been super supportive. He's wanted a baby so badly as well. Despite our plus sign, I was still not convinced, so we drove back to Walmart at 11:20 pm and got a First Response Early Response test. I took it when I got home. A minute passed and there was no line. So I said "I am not pregnant..." and started to walk away. Well, in that instant we both looked down and at the same time said "WHAT IS THAT????" and sure enough another line was forming! So, back to www.peeonastick.com we went-after hugging, kissing, celebrating, etc...
Once again, our light positive was still darker than some pictures we saw. After we were fully convinced, Cliff took a minute to pray with me for our baby and for mine and the baby's health and our ability to raise our child in a Christian home everyday of it's life. I should also say here that he told me while I was in Wal Mart getting the second test (he sat in the car that go round) that he prayed for this baby the entire time. What a wonderful man of God! We sat and talked our way through the shock and excitement we were experiencing and then at midnight decided we'd ride to my Dad's house and tell he, Kathy and Cory. Stephen was not home and we didn't want him to miss out on the news when we told the rest of that side of our family so we called and told him first. I believe my words were "We wanted you to be the first to know that you are going to be an uncle..." and he was thrilled. Then, we went to Mansfield. All three of them were still awake and I walked in and Kathy said "ARE YOU PREGNANT??" and we started to cry. So, we stayed and talked about things with them for about an hour, then we came home. It was way too late to drive to Loganville to tell my Mom, Barry, Jeremy and Josh and we knew Cliff's family would be sound asleep, but we were dying to share our news with them!
Saturday morning started with us getting up at 8:45 and taking two more tests-both positive again. (This makes 4 tests total) Jenny came to meet me for lunch (which was planned before I knew I had this exciting news to share with her) and I was able to tell her right away, which was incredibly special to me because we are so close and I would have hated to tell her over the phone-she's been one of our biggest fans in this journey. She and I did some shopping and found bibs that said I love my Grandma and I love my Grandpa to give my Mom and Barry and an I love my Auntie bib for Aunt Chrisitie-I was very sad not to find an I love my Uncle bib for Uncle Marshall. Then we ventured into the pet section and found a shirt for Bailey. When I got home, Cliff and I wrote "I'm the big sister" on her shirt and went to his parents house. I took her in the bathroom and dressed her then came out. Cliff's mom read it several times and didn't get it...she thought we'd gotten another puppy and they were getting Bailey. Needless to say, once they figured out that I was pregnant they were ecstatic. Then we went to Aunt Christie and Uncle Marshall's. The scream that you all heard about 4:00 was her. She was not being harmed like it might have sounded, she was just so excited for us. We spent about two hours there and had the best time celebrating with her and Uncle Marshall. Then, we rode over to our dear friends Tracy and Duane's house and showed up unannounced. I knew that if I called she'd be suspicious. We came in and she was on the couch with Emma. Well, I just blurted out "I'm pregnant!" and she jumped off the couch (almost dropping Emma...) and screamed and we hugged and hugged. The car rides from place A to place B were spent calling good friends that lived far away that I knew I wouldn't see for a while. I was so sad that I had to tell people over the phone, but it was still very exciting to make the phone calls! Later that night, we went to Dad and Kathy's and ate hotdogs and potato salad, which I had been craving and they also got us an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen-Beth, I know you and Josh are jealous about that! At this point, I am still just crazed b/c I had not been able to get to Loganville to tell my Mom and Barry. Jenny on the other hand, had my mom at her house keeping Audrey and had to keep that huge secret. Kudos to her hard work... We also got to tell Kelli, Cindy and David late Saturday night when they came by after eating in Covington. Church was so fun-but alot of people already knew, which was fine with me b/c I'd been telling the same story over and over and over and over. :) FINALLY after church we were able to head to Loganville and tell Mom and Barry. They were the last people in the free world to find out and I hated that but she didn't mind b/c she was so excited about the news. We'd called Jeremy Saturday night since we knew he was at college and wouldn't be at home for the news when that side of my family received it. We were leaving to go out to eat and I told her that we could go, but first they needed to put on these...and I handed them the bibs. :) She of course, started crying (but only for a minute) and they were very excited for us, so we had a nice lunch filled with baby talk. So, that's our story. We're so excited and don't want to forget a moment of it...I type so much faster than I write, thus we've created a blog for all our friends and family to enjoy all the different stages we'll go through with us. Also, so that we will always have these memories at our fingertips. The following entries won't be as long, but this was a long, long story and I didn't want to leave anything out. Everyone please pray for our baby!! :)