The Shults Saga: Shit Just Got Real

I've never been more inspired to write--well, to blog, anyway. I want to remember as much of every milestone, smile, tear and moment in our next (and greatest) adventure as possible; and when I can't remember, I want to read about it (The Notebook style). This will be our greatest story. The best part is that it has already begun and will continue to evolve and endure for our lifetimes.

We are expecting our first baby April 2016. Wow!

It still shocks me to say "I'm pregnant!" aloud. I still almost tear up when I think about having a child with my husband and giving a grandchild to our parents.

Our path was not smooth, nor do I expect or hope for it to be going forward. But it is our path nonetheless and for that reason, it is perfect. We decided over two years ago that we were ready to start a family. We were both healthy, active and still in our 20s so we certainly didn't expect to wait too long for those two pink little positive lines. Six months, a year, eighteen months passed and our dreams of parenthood seemed so distant.

Life was crazy, work was stressful, schedules were full, yet we were prepared to move across the world for Eric's career. Just as I'm looking at housing in Singapore, the multi-year project was pushed. We were emotionally restless and trying to navigate the sudden changes, which was challenging for us. We discussed everything our situation entailed and accepted that just maybe natural conception wasn't in our cards, or at least not yet.

Our schedules have always been hectic, but in spite of everything, we decided to book a last minute trip to Dominican Republic at the end of July. We left the stresses of life, our careers and family planning in the states and had one of the most relaxing vacations we've been on.

And then something happened.

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I always had ideas of how I would tell Eric I'm pregnant when that fateful day was mine. It turned out that (again) my plans didn't matter, God already had it all figured out.

One night while I was on my way home from a Fantasy Football draft, I was talking to Eric, who was 14 hours ahead and getting ready for work in South Korea. I was complaining to him about how downright exhausted I'd been the past week. It didn't seem to matter that I would get 8-10 hours of sleep, all I wanted to do was nap when I got home from work. We had been traveling a lot (par for the course) and I had been working out a lot more consistently, so I thought life was just pushing back. Eric didn't. He said, "Well, you're probably pregnant." I denied the possibility and we went about our conversation.

I couldn't really sleep that night, because now he had me thinking, what-if!? The next morning I FaceTimed him much earlier than usual as he was getting ready for bed. I said that I just had to take a test to know so I can put it behind me. Lo and behold, that test displayed a little plus sign pretty quickly. I dropped the phone in shock and happiness and fear and every emotion in between. I started sobbing--like straight-up ugly-crying. I hear from my phone on the floor, from my so eloquently spoken husband, "Well, shit just got real!!" The two tests I immediately took after confirmed that yes, in fact, shit got very real.

"Shit just got real"