The big reveal (telling our families)...

Marcus and I always knew that if we were ever successful in actually getting pregnant we wanted to tell our families in person. I thought of calling them up and telling them this news just didn't seem right to me. However, that meant waiting until I was 13 weeks to share with anyone (except Jess who was great with our secret).

There was also the matter of how to tell. I've had years to think about how I would tell and over time the plans changed some, but we finally decided that we would use ultrasound pictures and wrap them up in some sort of frame and album and tell them that way. Then the night before we left I was bored and decided that I would attempt to adapt the poem "The Night Before Christmas" to suit our needs (that poem is much longer than I remember and I didn't use all of it). I came up with what can only be described as the corniest poem ever, but Marcus loved it, thought it was hilarious, and insisted we use it and so that's what we did.

Here's my adaptation of the poem: With ultrasound pictures placed strategically in the album to correspond with the lines in the poem.

Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house,
Not a creature was stirring not even a mouse.
The stockings were hung somewhere with care,
And Marcus and Sadie had big news to share.

For years they wanted children to tuck into bed,
And visions of a family danced in their heads.
Together we kept praying and tried to have hope,
But nothing went our way like some big cosmic joke.

But finally in October Sadie felt a little fatter,
So she took a test to see what was the matter.
Away to the doctor we flew like a flash.
Excited, but nervous that our hopes would be dashed.

When what to our wandering eyes did appear,
But our perfect little miracles our baby so dear.
So tiny and perfect at only 5 weeks,
We prayed that this baby would be ours to keep.

As the news sunk in and with our joy we did cry,
We returned to the doctor and she exclaimed, “Oh my!”
Anxiously we waited to see what she knew,
Then we learned we weren’t having one baby, but TWO!

Until July 2nd the twins will remain out of sight,
But here’s a glimpse of our Baby A…

And Baby B to wish you a good night.

Then we had the dilemma of when to share the news. I really thought we should tell before church on Christmas Eve because in my opinion the dress the I was wearing made me look pregnant, and I didn't want anyone speculating. This didn't actually work out because my mom had to work all day before church and we couldn't tell my in-laws and then expect them not to say anything until after church. So by default we decided that after church we would tell Marcus' parents and my mom and siblings.

After church we went to my in-laws first because they have a tradition of opening one package on Christmas eve (and it's always new pajamas). Marcus then handed them the small package and we told them to read. A couple of times my mother in law looked up so we had to tell her to keep reading so she could also find out that we were having twins. This is the only picture we have from that moment.

Marcus' parents.


Marcus' brother who was also sitting in the room caught on pretty quickly but he was surprised that were having two and later he hugged me and said, "Good Job" which I thought was a hilarious response.

After sharing with my in-laws we went to my mom's house and repeated the process. We quietly handed my mom the same small package and told her to keep reading. She was excited and surprised and immediately wanted to call everyone she knew, and we let her. My sisters were also excited at the prospect of being aunts (finally). We called my brother and his wife, and my Aunt in Minnesota, and then I called my Aunt who lives just down the road and my cousin Max who is six mentioned that he wanted at least one of the babies to be a boy.

The next morning Christmas day we continued to call and share with extended family. We called Marcus brother and his wife in Phoenix, and our grandparents. My grandparents were shocked (I think they had given up on us having kids anytime soon) and were so excited that it was twins. My Mama mou's side of the family (my grandma) has a ton of twins all over the place, so the fact that I was continuing that family tradition seemed to thrill her. Marcus grandma didn't believe him and it took a lot of convincing to finally get her to believe that we were actually having twins.

And then we were done sharing and let our moms and families spread the news for us.

I'm glad we waited to share.