Big News!

We’re very excited to introduce you to the newest addition to the Young family!

Marie is about six weeks and five days along as of today. Right now, they are guessing the due date is January 9, 2011.

For those of you who are interested, here’s how all this was unfolded to us.

So Marie has been patiently waiting for me to be “ready” for us to expand our family for a while…

Okay, maybe it’s been like two years.

Anyway…

You may have read on here that a few months ago I started taking some semi-regular trips to a local monastery to give myself a day to refocus and recharge so I’m ready to go the rest of the time. Well, I had one such visit on May 1, 2010. While I was there, God and I had a little chat, and he basically said, “What are you waiting for?”

I didn’t have a good answer anymore.

So I decided it was time.

On my way home that day, I stopped at a bookstore and bought two books: 100 Answers to 100 Questions About Being a Great Dad and 100 Answers to 100 Questions About Being a Great Mom. Marie was gone when I arrived home, so I wrapped them up and planned to give them to her when she got back.

When she walked in, I told her that I had a gift for her and had her sit down. She unwrapped the gift and gave me a huge look of shock. “Does this mean what I think it means?” “Yes, yes it does.”

Needless to say, she was a little excited.

The timing was perfect because unbeknownst to both of us, Marie was already pregnant.

Fast forward to the following week, Marie had been feeling a bit “queezy” in the evenings for several days, and so she had a hunch something might be up. She took a pregnancy test, and she thought it was negative, but she wasn’t sure.

The next Friday came, and I was at the Chick-fil-A LeaderCast with my buddy James over at UC’s main campus. We were listening to some great leaders speak from a satellite location, along with about 100 other sites. They had encouraged everyone to bring their laptops and tweet and whatnot during the event, so I had brought mine along and was doing so.

That night, our good friend, Ron, and his fiancée were coming over to talk about some wedding details with us. So Marie was going to be at home getting things ready there. When I left in the morning, everything was pretty much done though.

While I was at the LeaderCast, Marie had left me a couple of messages on my cell asking “are you coming home early?” and “what time are you coming home?” saying that she needed some help with the house. Every time I tried to call her, she didn’t pick up. Something fishy was going on.

So a little over an hour before the event was over, I was tweeting away listening to some neurosurgeon speak or something, and I had gmail open, and I saw Marie’s name flash up for a chat on gmail. Through the power of Google, I have the actual chat transcript (man, I’m a huge nerd).

Marie: are you able to talk?
me: for a second
Marie: R u coming home soon?
me: we get out of here after 4pm. why?
Marie: I just need some help.
me: you know I’m at UC, right?
Marie: yeah.
me: it will probably be after 5pm when I get home
Marie: so you’ll be home around 5ish?
me: should be
Marie: ok, that should be fine. I’m just trying to get everything done, daddy.
me: say what? are you serious?
Marie: yep, just left the doctor.
me: are you freaking kidding me?
Marie: December 14th our little boy or girl will be here. I wanted to tell you in person but can’t wait. yeah. I have my first ultra sound in 2weeks. are you excited?
[2 minute pause from me while I'm high fiving James in the middle of a room of hundreds of people]
me: uh yes! I’m just a little surprised right now.
Marie: yeah. I’ve cried and laughed in the doctors office. I’m 4 to 8 weeks. they aren’t sure but the ultrasound will tell us for sure.
me: uh. I’m just a little beside myself right now.
Marie: I know me too.

So I found out that I’m going to be a dad through gmail chat. How appropriate.

While I was gone that day, Marie had decided to go get another pregnancy test, only this time she decided to get one that just said “Pregnant” or “Not Pregnant” so there was no confusion. As you can see, it came up “Pregnant,” so she decided to head to the doctor to make sure.

They gave her another test there, and it showed positive too. So they said, “yup, you’re pregnant all right” and started giving her all the info on what would unfold over the next nine months of our life. Marie said she didn’t really remember anything between the time they said, “you’re pregnant” and when they said, “happy Mother’s day” on the way out, which really threw her for a loop.

Yes, all this happened on Mother’s Day weekend, which also seemed oddly appropriate. So here’s how we decided to break the news to our parents.

We bought both of our moms the same card. On the front, it had a cartoon of two people raising their hands and said:

“I’d like to make a motion to wish you a Happy Mother’s Day.”
“I second that motion.”

On the inside, we made it read:

“Happy Mother’s Day from both all three of us.”

We went out on Saturday night and gave them each the cards and said that we found a really funny one, but they had to read it out loud or it wouldn’t be funny.

So Marie’s mom read the outside, opened it, and looked up in shock without reading it out loud, so Marie’s dad had no idea what was going on. She must have set there for a good two to three minutes in total shock, but eventually she got it out.

At my parents’ house, my mom read it out loud, and then she got all teary-eyed and whatnot. Surprised all of them for the most part.

So there you have it. Josh and Marie are having a baby.

Now you can all stop asking us when we’re going to have kids. :)

Can’t wait to see how this turns out! Ready or not!