telling my parents

After taking the home pregnancy test, we decided that we needed to tell our parents. We found out on a Friday night. After taking the test, I wanted to go to my mom's immediately, but I knew she was in bed. The next morning, we had rehearsal for our Christmas musical. Matt, Mama, and myself all had roles in the play. It was killing me to keep the secret all bottled up inside of me. I didn't know whether or not I should tell her right then and there or wait for a better time. Well, the Lord quickly gave me an answer. As we were looking at the final program we realized that my mom's character along with her name was nowhere to be found on the program. After all of her hard work, she was upset to not have her name mentioned. Also, I wasn't sure how she'd take the pregnancy news, so I had my answer...it wasn't time to tell her. Sunday was the performance and if I wasn't already a ball of nerves, I could really have used a nerve pill at this point! I was so nervous about the musical and even more nervous about sharing the news.

After every Christmas musical, we have a choir fellowship at my parents' house. I knew I couldn't hold the secret much longer. I decided that I would tell her after everyone left their house. Around 11:30 the last few people FINALLY left. I could feel my face turning red and my pulse start to race. Matt was sitting on my left. Mama came in the living room and sat down on my right side on the couch. I really wanted Daddy to be there as well when I shared the news. God made it happen. Normally, Daddy would go to his study or find something to do; instead, he sat down on the floor in front of us. I wasted no time. I looked at the both of them and said, "Mama, Daddy....I'm pregnant." Mama laughed and said, "Yeah right." I said, "No..really, I am." She kind of rolled her eyes and said,"Whatever, April." I then started crying and whimpered out, "No Mama, I am really pregnant." In a split second she said, "Oh, Baby!" Daddy swooped in and hugged me. I wasn't sure why I was crying. Maybe because I was terrified of their reaction. Maybe it was because of the nerves. Maybe it was hormones! This was a big deal!

In my great plan, I had planned to be married for about 3 years before having children. Mama knew of this plan and she had planned to be our nanny (one of her dreams). I knew that, financially, now wasn't the best time for her to up and leave her job. Through tears I explained to Mama that we would figure this out and that we did not want her to even think of leaving her job. We would find a way to afford daycare. Mama, the saint that she is, reassured me that everything would work out and that we would all work together to figure it out. After all, we had nine months to come up with a plan! Nervousness turned into more nervousness and slight excitement. I didn't sleep well that night. The next day, Mama called me around lunch time. She was crying and said, "Baby girl, my baby is having a baby!!! I'm sitting in Cracker Barrel crying!" It had finally hit her. I cried, too.

Next, we had to tell Matt's parents...