WOW, What a week!

This has just been a crazy and exciting week. We have received so many calls, texts, hugs, etc. We are just overwhelmed your outpouring of love and support and most importantly your prayers. We still have a long road ahead of us so please continue to pray for healthy little babies to be born near Christmas and for our sweet Rena and her family.

Rena had more bloodwork this morning. They will measure her hCG level again and we want to see it double every 48-72 hours. I think we will all breathe a little easier once we make it through this first trimester.

Okay so I promised details of the blessed event. It has just taken me awhile to be able to compile my thoughts….my brain is still going crazy, but I will try to recall everything the best I can.

Monday was 7dp5dt (that is infertility lingo for 7 days past 5 day transfer) and some people start to get faint positives on home pregnancy tests (HPT) at this point. But some people do not get a positive until later. So we all had discussed whether to take a HPT or not…(to pee or not to pee, that is the question) We decided on Monday that we would take one but if it was negative we would not get upset about it because that could mean it was just too early. So Rena was with her sister and it seemed like this would be a good time to take it because she would have someone with her. She took it after they had lunch and it was negative. We still had hope for two reasons: 1) it was early and sometimes it takes awhile for the hCG to build up enough to show a positive on a HPT and 2) we took it mid-day and you get better results in the morning. But we were all still a little disappointed….guess that’s only natural.

Tuesday morning Rena took another test and it was again negative. Later that morning she told me that she just went and laid on her bed and prayed. She has been praying all along but she said this time it was different. This time she really gave it to the Lord, because even though she had prayed so hard that this would work, she never really surrendered to His will. And when she did that she felt like 50lb. weights had been lifted off her shoulders. As soon as she finished praying something told her “you have one more test in there, go take it”. In her mind she thought “no, the directions say only take it in the morning” but she couldn’t ignore this urge to retake the test.

Around 10:30ish I get a phone call from a shaky voice, crying Rena and I knew immediately it was good tears. The faintest pink line had appeared on the test. She said “I am getting in the car right now and driving to your house, you have to see this.” Only I was so busy at work and was up against a deadline. So I told her “no let me finish what I have to here and I will meet you and we can surprise Paul.”

So we met close to Paul’s office and his staff snuck us in the back. I brought this book I had found called My Daddy and Me and we placed the test inside. When Paul came in and saw Rena and Logan he knew it was good news. We told him we had something to show him and asked him to look inside the book. His face lit up and he was so cute. I should apologize to any patients that had to see him after that because I know his mind was not on eyeballs. He was a happy new daddy!

We enjoyed the rest of the day by taking Rena and Logan to Bridge Street to play around until Paul got off work. While we were there Lori called and she had just picked the girls up from school and she was close by so she decided to come meet Rena. The girls had the best time with Logan. They were so cute making wishes and throwing change into the fountain. Precious. When Paul got off work we all went to eat at PF Chang’s. It was a great day!

We decided that we would wait for the final confirmation from the bloodwork the next day before we told anyone else. And we wanted to tell our parents first…face-to-face.

This was going to be the longest day of our lives. We celebrated the night before but there was still a little part of us that said not to get our hopes up just yet. On my way to work I was listening to my favorite radio show (Rick & Bubba) and they were telling a story about a little girl in Florida who had been missing for 4 days and the wonderful story of how she was found. On a secular radio station they played an interview of the man that found her. He said that he prayed and God revealed to him this scripture “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your on understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths.” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I broke into tears so hard I could barely see the road. I needed this reminder again that I could trust Him, no matter what news we received today.

So that morning Rena gave blood and the wait began. Her appointment was at 8AM but the clinic sends the blood off to a lab and gets the results back that afternoon. They usually call with the results between 2PM-5PM. The clinic called me at 2:03 with the wonderful news. And as if God just had to give us one more message to remind us that He is in control……He is so funny.....this made me laugh out loud and literally want to fall to my knees and praise Him. The nurse said the test we did today measured Rena’s hCG level and anything above 20 is pregnant. “Rena’s level was 77, congratulations you are pregnant!!” My response was “Can you repeat that?” How many times is 7 going to appear in this story? WOW we serve an awesome (and sometimes humorous) God!!

So now we have this wonderful news that we want to shout from the rooftop, but the problem was we were both at work and Paul would not be finished until 5PM. How on earth were we going to keep this a secret until Paul could get off and we could tell our parents together? This was torture! I knew the minute my parents saw my face they would know. I do not have a good poker face and I am a terrible liar. So we told them that I was going to Paul’s office to wait for the call and they could either meet us there or wait for us at our house. They chose to meet us there. Which meant I really had to avoid them…..I claimed I had to use the bathroom, hid out in the back room of his office…anything to avoid eye contact. I think I actually pulled it off and they contributed my strange behavior to nerves.

Finally Paul finished with his last patient and he asked my parents to come into a back room so we could have more privacy. He told them I just got the call. I walked outside to get the flowers and sign to surprise them. We even had little pins that said “Future Mom” and “Future Dad.” By the time we came back inside mom was crying saying “it is taking too long, it must be bad news.” We saw my dad first in the hallway. He had the cutest grin on his face. And when mom saw the flowers and congratulation sign she really lost it! The look on their faces was priceless!

Mom has always wanted to be called Honey by her grandchildren and dad’s initials are BB, hence the Bs (or Beez) and Honey theme.

Next we head to the Vandiver’s house to surprise them with the news. Karen was equally concerned that it was taking so long and must be bad news. The dads seem to have more confidence. Lori was there with our nieces. Karen met us in the driveway, but she didn’t even start to smile when she saw the flowers. She just kept asking “Is it?” “Is it?” “Is it?”….I was waiting for Paul to say something, but he seemed to be enjoying the torture. I finally had to say “Congratulations Grandmom!!” Our moms had pretty much the same reaction. Tears of joy mixed with a little anger that we had tortured them so long. But overall I think the joy outweighed the anger :) She was crying so hard that I think we scared the girls a little bit. Little Marli didn’t seem to know what was going on. She just knew Grandmom looked upset so she gave her a hug. Such a sweetie! Lori asked them later if they knew what was going on and why we surprised Grandmom and they said “Yeah, cause Aunt Yeslie and Uncle Paul brought her flowers”…..children say the cutest things!



Even though it was terrible to put our parents through that wait, we wouldn’t have it any other way than to have the memory of the look on their faces and getting to tell them in person. It is something we will always cherish.

It was an incredible day! We were so very excited…words really can’t describe.

Now the countdown begins to holding them in our arms. As I said before we still have a long way to go. Most people don’t even know they are pregnant at this point (5 weeks today), much less start telling the world. But we covet your prayers. We ask that God protect Rena and these special little angels. We should have weekly appointments through ART for awhile, so we will keep you posted.

Thank you for everything! Your support and prayers are what is getting us through this sometimes excruciating wait.