Oh BOY!

April 3rd, 2018

Today was a crazy day that culminated in the sweetest surprise. It started with a phone call from Natural Beginnings Birth Center saying, we have the results of your genetic testing! "Everything looks good. You're negative for all major trisomies, etc etc. And we know the sex of your baby. Would you like to know right now? Or I can put it in an envelope and you can come pick it up?"

Squeeeeee! "Please put it in an envelope and we'll be right there!" I almost yelled into the phone. I ran to the bathroom and shouted to your daddy, "They have the results! We can know today!"

"Oh wow! That was quick!" he said. I immediately begin texting my mom, sisters, and closest girlfriends. "We can find out baby's sex today!" Whoa, hold on a minute several of them said. Why weren't we going to wait and find out at the gender reveal on April 22nd? Don't we want to be surprised in front of everyone?

So they had me questioning my original plan of having the gender reveal party for everyone else. Your daddy and I wanted to find out as soon as we could. After all, we had been waiting for 7 years. Three more weeks seemed like a lifetime! So I had my good friend Sarah McElvain pick up the envelope and hold onto it while I made up my mind about what I wanted to do.

After lots of thinking and discussing it with Daddy, we decided that we wanted to make this a private memorable moment between us and find out tonight. We would video our reactions and show it at the gender reveal party after we did the grand confetti cannon announcement! So I called Sarah and told her that I was coming by to pick up the envelope.

But as it turns out Sarah owns the cutest online baby boutique and we began concocting a plan to make our private reveal that much more special. Instead of pulling papers out of an envelope to read the word Male or Female, she would wrap a onesie in a fun box for us! She had me go online and select an outfit for male and one for female. Because your daddy and I are into essential oils, I choose a onesie with yellow lemons on a blue background for a boy and orange grapefruits on a pink background for a girl.

We stopped by to pick up the cute little package from Sarah's house (it had a little ducky on it which I love!) and we decided to drive to Mayfield Park which is a very special place. Your daddy and I had our wedding there almost 11 years ago and it's a beautiful park with ponds, flower gardens, tons of trees, and peacocks that roam the grounds.

We arrived at the park a little after 7 pm, and the sky was threatening rain. The wind was a-howlin' but the sun was peaking through the clouds so we got out of the car. As we did, a stunning male peacock came up to your dad and literally approached him which is surprising because they are usually shy of humans. I didn't tell him this, but I thought it was an omen that we were having a boy since males are the beautiful birds of the peacock world.

We found a nice spot snuggled in the flower gardens with a view of the arch under which we spoke our wedding vows and set up the tripod with my phone to take the video. I pressed play and we sat and stared at the box for awhile and took deep breaths. I was nervous to find out, which I don't know why because we had had this strong gut feeling that you were a boy. We opened the box and took the green tissue paper off and....

Yellow Lemons/Blue Background!

We were right! You are a little baby boy in there! Your dad exclaimed YES! and put his hands into the air. I cried for him and you and because it was the perfect peaceful little moment in our special place to find out a little more about you. But that wasn't the best part.

We had our moment and walked back to the car, onesie in hand. I got into the passenger seat and shut the door. A moment later I was startled to see your dad knocking on the window and telling me to get out of the car. Was the peacock back? "What?" I questioned as I got out of the car.

"Look up." 

And there in the sky for just that moment in time: a rainbow. Clear as day. 

My mouth dropped and tears filled my eyes and I held your dad and wept. Wept for the promise of a rainbow after a very long storm of infertility and pregnancy loss. Your soul was already beaming, as if to say "I'm here mom and dad. I'm real and I'm yours. Revel."

Surreal. I'm tearing up again even as I write this. I snapped a photo of it because I never want to forget that gift from God. That visible colorful sign that all is right in the world. For our perfect baby boy, Jackson Douglas, is about to grace the world. 

Love,

Momma