Spreading the News!

12/31/07

It was so exciting to go home at Christmas this year in anticipation of telling everyone about our little bundle of joy. We arrived in Kansas on December 21st, where Steve and Steph picked us up from the airport, it was great to see them but also very hard to not share our news right away. On the way to the restaurant Steve asked, "So any big news?" hee hee! So we told them about the final decision to move to PA for BGMC. We ate at Paulo and Bill in K.C. and shortly after we arrived our waitress came to our table with a bottle of Non-alcoholic Sparkling Juice and gave us a very good spiel about how the Surgeon General recommends that women who are pregnant should not drink alcoholic beverages. Steve and Steph were looking rather clueless up until Jim said, "Well, I guess that is for us." It was funny to watch as the news sunk in. Please see the video below. :) Jim had made all the arrangements in advance, and the restaurant staff was very attentive and excited for us, which made the evening a lot of fun. We had fun talking about how we had bluffed Miss Stephanie for the last few months and how completely clueless she was!


Once we got home to Jodi's parent's house we surprised them with Thumper's unexpected trip to KS for Christmas. Mom, Dad, and Travis were very excited! We got there at about 12:30 a.m. and knew that Justin was on his way home so we sat up and talked as we waited for him. He got there at about 1:30 and we didn't wait long. We got the sonogram picture frame out and told Mom and Dad that we wanted to complete their Christmas gift. As soon as mom saw the picture she exclaimed, "It's my Grandbaby!" She was very excited and started crying. Dad was a little speechless but was very excited. Justin and Travis were also excited but expressed it a little differently, one them stated, "This means you are going to have change diapers now." Hee Hee! That was funny.

Saturday we went over to Mom and Clifford's to break the news. We told them the same way we told our parents. They were also excited for us. Before we left Jim's mom brought out several baby outfits that Jim wore when he was a baby as well as a new copy of "Little Black Goes the Circus," one of Jim's favorite books as a child. We told Grandma Neufeld at supper that night and prayed very hard that she could keep the secret through the evening as we celebrated Travis's graduation. SHE DID IT!!!! She was very excited about her first Great Grandbaby. She was already talking about taking a four generation picture and coming to visit us after the baby is born.

On Sunday we opened gifts at Mom & Clifford's, and Clifford was in charge of the big reveal. At the beginning of the gift opening Clifford had each of the grandkids come and open one box at a time, progressively getting smaller until the final box was opened to reveal the sonogram picture of our little “Sprout.” While some people were clueless what was coming, the way Clifford played it up others were pretty sure what was coming. Everyone was excited, but not as much as Jodi's family since this will be the 8th grandchild on Jim's side of the family.

On Monday we had a break from telling people the big news as we spent time with both families.

On Tuesday however, the reveal continued with the Neufeld gathering. We had recruited Grandma to help share the news, she did great. Everyone was excited for us, and to have a little one join the family to liven things up a bit next Christmas.

While we were home we had the chance to share the news with other important people besides family. Making connections with many friends during our time and Kansas presented the opportunity to tell them of our expected arrival.