Finding out about Baby Sierra

The beginning of 2022 brought about A LOT of change. I decided to pursue my Masters in Biblical Studies and leave my full time job and Alex got offered a job in Kansas, which led us to make the decision to leave our hometown, sell a house, and buy a house, all within one month. But the biggest change for Alex and me happened on February 15, 2022. The day we found out I was pregnant with our first little baby.

The night before, I told Alex that I was going to pick up a pregnancy test in the morning because my period was a week late. I had gotten off birth control back in December and my periods were usually consistent, so I figured I’d get a test just to be sure. I truly did not think I was pregnant. Alex thought I was for sure, because this was the first time I’d ever taken a pregnancy test, so he knew something was different. (Side note because I find it funny and its totally a first time pregnancy test thing – I bought the test that would show the words “Pregnant” or “Not Pregnant” even though it was significantly more expensive than the ones with the lines, because I wanted a clear answer. I didn’t want to have to sit in my bathroom feeling like a detective with a magnifying glass figuring out if there was one line or two. Loling at myself even just typing this.)

After I peed on my “Pregnant”, “Not Pregnant” stick, I stood in our little bathroom with Alex, telling him over and over that I likely wasn’t pregnant. After three minutes, there it was. My stick said “Pregnant”. It’s hard to explain what I felt in that moment. Giddy, fearful, joyous. But what I remember feeling the most was unmeasured gratitude to God for giving us this blessing, and unmeasured gratitude to Alex who held me tightly and told me how excited he was. That moment really foreshadowed how Alex has held me during this entire pregnancy and has been the best support.

As soon as we found out, we couldn’t wait to tell our immediate family. We made a plan to tell each of them that day. We got Alex’s sister Starbucks and had the barista write “Aunt” on the cup. For Alex’s parents, we grabbed pink and blue paint samples and told them we wanted to get their opinion on paint colors. (We had plans to paint our kitchen, so this worked perfectly and they weren’t suspicious when we showed up to their house with the samples.) Then, we quickly made my niece a shirt that said ” Best Cousin Ever”, and showed my sister, brother-and-law, and my parents. My brother was on an airplane at the time, so we texted him a picture of a Wordle that said “Baby Sierra Coming Soon”. It was so fun to see and hear our family’s reactions, and we were so excited to let them into this journey with us.

As for other family members and friends, we decided we wanted to tell as many people in person as possible. This made things pretty tricky. As we saw fam and friends, we told them the news, but also had to tell them that not everyone knew yet, so they couldn’t say anything. It took us over a month to tell as many people in person as we could. This was longer than we expected and made it hard on our families to “keep the secret”. If God blesses us with baby #2 in the future, I don’t think we will do this in the same way. My guess is that we’ll try to tell everyone at the same time, in person or not, because planning when we were going to tell people in person was a lot more stressful than we originally anticipated.

Reminiscing on this memory has been so sweet. I realize what a blessing it is to be able to experience such a miracle on earth and I am so grateful for it. Baby Sierra, you are so loved already and your mom and dad are so proud of you. As much as we love you, we hope you’ll learn that God loves you even more!!! We can’t wait to meet you!!

“For it was you who created my inward parts, you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I will praise you because I have been remarkably and wondrously made. Your works are wondrous, and I know this very well. My bones were not hidden from you when I was made in secret, when I was formed in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw me when I was formless; all my days were written in your books and planned before a single one of them began.” Psalms 139:13-16 CSB