Something's in the Water!

Let's get some of the early details set straight. 

Jonathan and I got married in August 2011, a mere week before my senior and his junior year began at John Brown University. We immediately LOVED being married!!! It was so nice to come home after the stresses of our classes and have someone to relax with and talk to. Absolutely nothing compares to with waking up next to your best friend every day.

Nathan and Valerie
Sometime in November we received a box of shoes in the mail from Jonathan's older sister and her husband. It was a pair of baby sneakers. This was their way to telling us that we had a niece or nephew that would be making an appearance in May 2012. Gotta admit that there was a part of me that was super sad at this news. Not sad that they were having a baby, just sad that we couldn't yet. We put the sneakers away on a high shelf in closet we never went in, just so I wouldn't have to see them very often.

Daniel and Lauren
Christmas Eve finds us all Skyping with another of Jonathan's sisters and her husband who live in Kenya. They say they have one more present for all of us. They will send it via email. Everyone checks. A photo of the two of them with +1 painted on it. Oh joy, I thought. Another reminder that we aren't at that stage of life yet. Again, happy for them getting their prayers answered in such an awesome way, but a stab of pain because I can't join the celebration yet. We assure the family at this point that we (the only other married couple) have no announcements to make, and there will not be one any time soon.

Us
Christmas morning. I woke up not feeling well, so I decided to stay in bed and not go to church. I assumed it was just impending lady problems, and that I should just try to sleep as much as possible. Within three days, however, I had figured out that something was not normal. 
On our way home from Dallas I told Jonathan, 
"Honey, I think I should take a pregnancy test."
"Really?"
"Ya."
"I think you should wait at least another week or week and a half. If you still want to at that point, we can go buy you one."
"Ok."
Five days later...
"Jonathan, I would like you to go read the test. I'm too nervous."
"Ok... It's negative. The two lines aren't the same shade."
"They don't have to be the same honey. It just has to have two lines at all."
"Oh... I'm gonna be a dad then!"

Matthew and Jennifer
We kept it to ourselves for about a week or so, then started telling family and friends. A little while after we told my family, I got the announcement that my oldest sister was expecting her fourth baby... due a week after me. This put us having one baby due in May, two in late August, and one in early September. Oh Man! Cousins galore.