How I Told My Husband (and everyone else) I Was Pregnant
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Wowza! The response to my last blog post, Our Journey to Pregnancy, floored me. Y’all are incredible. Glory to God for how He uses the stories of imperfect, ordinary people to reveal His great power and faithfulness. If you’ve stumbled on this blog post without first reading that blog post. Go read Our Journey to Pregnancy first!
Let’s have a little refresher in case you need one. November 28, 2016 my husband and I began trying to conceive. October 26, 2018 I took a pregnancy test at home, alone, and it was positive!! That day was a Friday. I held it inside for ONE WHOLE DAY. How? I have no clue. But I do know I wanted the moment I told Calvin to be special.
How I Told My Husband…
On Saturday, October 27, 2018, I woke up before Calvin to rush to Kroger because Theo (our dog pictured above) was out of dog food. That wasn’t a lie but it sure was a cover up! Praise the Lord for Kroger Marketplaces, amen? It’s like a Super Target - bigger, better. AND Kroger Marketplaces sell clothes, including baby clothes. I walked swiftly to the cute baby clothes with Theo’s 22 lb. bag of dog food leaning off my mini-cart and began eyeballing the onesies.
The night before I had decided to stuff a onesie in a Banana Republic/Gap/Old Navy mail bag and claim “I forgot I ordered you something from Banana Republic for your birthday, Calvin” then hand it to him during Saturday morning family breakfast (a tradition in our household I plan to honor till the day I die).
I would sit at the table with him and watch him open it all while secretly recording it on my Nikon camera stationed on the kitchen counter hidden behind my orchid plant. (insert mischievous faced emoji here)
It was going to be epic.
My heart raced as I drove home with a two pack of onesies. After parking in the driveway I quickly grabbed the mail bag and stuffed one of the onesies inside. I chose the blue “Hello” onesie cause, well, HELLO CALVIN, YOU’RE GONNA BE A DAD was my first thought! But also, yes, baby saying “hello” to dad is another nice sentiment. In it the onesie went and I re-sealed it and headed inside. .
*I know the camera isn’t directly on Calvin’s face. I realized after the fact that I probably should have sat where he was sitting.
Now let’s hear from Calvin…
As I was unraveling the onesie, I was totally confused. I thought it was a beanie or something. Then, when I laid it out and saw "Hello" written across it, my first thought was "how?"…
If you didn't know, I'm more of a logistical person before emotional.
I knew that Crystal had been late on her period for a while, but I still thought it was way too soon for you to know for sure if you were pregnant. I was almost in disbelief that we could know at this point and still worried about getting our hopes up for it to be true. When Crystal explained that I was obviously behind in the baby detection technology industry of the last 20 years, it was a mix of excitement and processing.
At first, I immediately started thinking about budgets and all the details of life that will change. But quickly I told that analytical part of my brain to shut up and celebrate the moment.
"Trust me dude, you'll have plenty of time to stress later -- enjoy this!"
More than anything, I think I was excited and relieved for Crystal. I've wanted to have a kid for a while and I am super excited, but Crystal...
Crystal was born to be a mom.
I've seen the desire bubbling within her so greatly, and I've seen the disappointment she's faced from 2 years of getting your hopes up only to be let down each month. So, to know she truly is pregnant was an overwhelming time of rejoicing.
After we hugged and had our moment, I asked to step away so I could pray for a moment. I went to the room where I typically pray, got down, and sat in silence for a moment.
You know the people you have the deepest relationship with in your life? There are a couple of people in our lives where words simply are not needed and they cannot adequately express the feelings between the two people.
"Thank you" was all that I could say, knowing that so much more was being expressed and understood by God. Yes, some tears came. God tends to do that.
Afterward, I went back out and got to continue celebrating God's faithfulness with my wife and best friend.
p.s. I am so pumped to be a dad.
How We Told Our Parents…
Calvin and I have another tradition of enjoying a fancy dinner and night out in celebration of debt being paid off. In 2016 we paid off my student loans and hence the tradition began. About 2 weeks before we found out we were pregnant, Calvin and I had now finished paying off his student loans. When his parents discovered our tradition of celebrating with a nice dinner, they thought it was a great idea and we decided to make it a double date! The date was set so when it came to telling his parents we were pregnant we decided that fancy dinner would be the best time to share the news with them. Especially because they wouldn’t be expecting the even better and even bigger news of us being pregnant!
We met for dinner at Manhattan in Lufkin and Calvin decided he’d share the news during a toast. After the initials greetings and customary catch ups, Calvin raised his glass and began his toast. He first stated how glad he was that both our student debt was now behind us, he then thanked his parents for their on going support of all his academic endeavors and explained how he had applied for several doctoral programs… (he paused and shot a smile at both his parents)
They began asking “What schools?” “Have you heard anything back?!” “Did you get into Rice?!”…
Calvin ignored their questions and added, “So we’d love your support once more as we head into this next season. . .
We’re pregnant!”
Unfortunately, I didn’t have a camera recording their anticipated looks turn into surprised and overjoyed faces. They got up, hugged us tight, and congratulated us.
Telling my parents also tied in with a fancy dinner. For my dad’s birthday Calvin and I invited him and my mom to dinner. I decided I would buy my dad a large thermos for coffee since he works the night shift. While shopping for the thermos at Target I found two cute onesies with adorable phrases written across the front in Spanish! I told Calvin I would stuff the thermos with the onesie for dad and as he opened his gift, I would hand the other one to my mom.
Luckily, Calvin began recording on his iPhone. Dad had no idea he was getting more than just a thermos!
For my non-Spanish speaking friends, he says in the video above, “What is this? Under-ware?!” HA!
Eventually, as you saw, he gets it out all the way to see it was a onesie. Both him and mom were so excited. Mama cried tears of joy. Her onesie said “I adore my grandma” in Spanish.
How We Told Our Siblings…
We told the rest of our families during the Thanksgiving holiday. We shared the news with my entire family after our traditional Thanksgiving dinner prayer and round of “what are you thankful for”. I blurted it out and the surprised (slightly confused) looks on everyones faces were priceless. We got lots of hugs and of course, over turkey and stuffing we continued the conversation as they asked me how far along I was, how I was feeling, and the rest.
Calvin and I traveled back up to Lufkin to tell his family after telling mine on Thanksgiving day. We had planned to share the news as we played a board game together Friday night once all of Calvin’s brothers got into town. Gathered in the den, all 10 of us, plus his parents, and all his nieces and nephews, we started the game. Calvin’s family loves board games, so it was the perfect way to share our news. Calvin drew a card from the Battle of the Sexes game that required him to pick a partner to act something out. Of course we planned ahead of time to just act out me being pregnant regardless of what the card said. We acted it out, Calvin’s oldest brother guessed it. Then I blurted out: “I’m pregnant!” Celebration broke out and instead of finishing the game we just sat and talked and soaked in the moment.
How We Told Our Church…
Our dear friends Eva and Jordan were the only ones at the church to know that we were expecting. So thanks to that, we have the video above! Calvin and I have been leading this church since January 2015. We love this community of believers and have enjoyed sharing many moments with them. I told Calvin I wanted to personally announce it to them before we announced it online and to everyone else.
The first Sunday of every month we have a Communion Service where we share testimonies from church members, baptize those that want to get baptized and take communion together. After a wonderful service of all of the above Calvin and I stood in front of the church to share our news. Again, the many hugs and congratulatory words warmed my heart and we felt an immense amount of support. We’ve met, held, and loved on many babies at this church, what a joy to have such sweet people now meet, hold and love on our child. It truly takes a village.
How We Told Everyone Else…
It was my sister Jessica’s idea to announce with Theodore via photo shoot. It didn’t take much convincing cause if you know Calvin and I, you know we love our dog, Theo. He’s spoiled rotten. I have some extremely talented and sweet friends in the creative space and Jordan Rivera is no exception. She’s photographed me a handful of times and she’s incredible. When Jordan reached out about a photoshoot for the blog I asked her if it could instead be an announcement shoot as I shared our news with her and she immediately agreed to it.
Theo thought we were just heading to the park for a walk, so he was thrilled. When Jordan met us there she had great tips for posing and prop use. You can see more of her work on her website www.jordanriveraphotography.com. She’s always a joy to work with! In fact, that same day she sent over the picture of our initial idea (Calvin covering Theo’s eyes behind the letter board with me shhhh-ing). Calvin and I decided we’d share the news with the world that instant! Now that our families and close friends knew, we couldn’t hold it in any longer from y’all!
Thank you!
The initial support when we announced our baby news online December 3rd was incredible. We’re so grateful for our families, friends, church, and loving support system. Y’all are amazing. This baby is already so blessed and loved.
Lastly, thank you for your readership! I appreciate you coming here each time a blog post is up. This mama is grateful. <3
I have a bump date post in the works along with pictures of the baby that I’m excited to share with y’all next! Anything else you’d like to read up on? Let me know in a comment below. I’m always excited to hear what you all would like for me to blog about! Until next time, follow along on Instagram at @crystalleewilliams!
- Crystal
