Love, Marriage, and a Baby!

As of today I am just over eight weeks pregnant. (This is a very good thing, don’t worry!) We had our first ultrasound today and got to see our little raspberry for the very first time. (That’s the size officially.) Baby has a strong heartbeat per the radiologist! I know it’s traditionally too early to announce, but honestly if god forbid anything bad happens at any point during this pregnancy, I’m not going to be silent about it either way. In any case, we made our official Facebook announcement to our friends today (our family already knew) and so far at least 85 people (!) have sent us well wishes in some form or another.

Hubby suggested we go out for dinner tonight to celebrate the most wonderful news of meeting our baby for the first time and hearing their heartbeat, so we went to the next town over for some burgers and a quick shop in one of the shopping centers. My belly is happy because I have been an eating machine ever since becoming pregnant, and I (un)surprisingly ate my entire burger in one sitting. On the way home we had a typical intimate conversation about our upbringings and what we will do differently as well as our opinions on said personal experiences. We came home and continued the conversation which pretty much ended with me crying happy tears (I am pregnant, after all, I will literally cry about anything at this point). I realize how genuinely good I have it in my life and I am so fortunate. Between the family we have and the friends we’ve made, even though Hubby and I moved up to Connecticut and we’re separated from our family, we still have so much support from everyone. This baby is so loved and so wanted and they’re going to grow up with the best life that we have worked hard to give them.

We’ve come a long way from being two kids in our twenties desperate to heal from our respective damages to now. I was introduced to him almost 17 years ago (coincidentally half a lifetime ago) through a simple Facebook wall post (do those still exist anymore?) and by November of this year we will hopefully have our first baby in our arms. We couldn’t have timed it better, honestly. For all the years of people nagging us and pressuring us to have a baby (NOT our family, mind you), this was truly the right time in our life.

As for being married, it’s been a blissful almost eight years. December 6 will be our eighth anniversary and how special it will be to celebrate with our tiny third wheel! We’ve grown together and as individuals, the both of us. I couldn’t be more proud of my wonderful husband who has been my lighthouse, my collaborator, my strength for all these years. And for the record, since we still celebrate our original relationship anniversary, November 23rd of this year will be our thirteenth year together. Another lucky number. The first anniversary celebrated with our tiny third wheel.

Oh, we’ve been through so much! The passings of parents, the grief, the healing… the couple fights over stupid, ultimately inconsequential things (don’t ask me to remember any of them because I don’t), the monumental growth, the fond memories we’ve shared together. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the cats we’ve loved and raised, and honestly the ones who raised us. What started out as the four of us in a tiny one bedroom apartment in Orlando is now a loving household of six (we’re almost entirely overrun with cats at this point) in our little home in western CT. The loving was always part of the equation; the environment and the participants may have changed (some slightly, some more obviously), but this love has always burned bright and warm.

Here’s to the ones we’ve lost. To the ones who left us. I truly believe that beings are only meant to be in your life for a finite amount of time. Here’s to making the most and the best of the time we have.

For our future children:

May this life raise you kindly

So you in turn will be kind

May you be challenged appropriately

So that you will be strong

And in your moments of weakness,

May that strength guide you

May you always feel the warm light of the sun

So you never know darkness

May you always be assured

That you are rooted in love

So that you grow more of it