The most surprised I’ve ever been…

I don’t find much in my life to be all that surprising, so this theme has taken a bit of thinking. One surprise I remember was my surprise 30th birthday party. I asked for a surprise party because I’ve never had one and always wanted one. That sounds sad, doesn’t it? But how do you surprise someone who asked for a surprise party? Well, my family managed to accomplish that by tricking me into thinking I was headed to my sister’s graduation party. Turned out to be my surprise party with old and new friends. It was great and we all got pretty drunk.

But I guess the biggest surprise was when my wife and I finally got pregnant with our daughter, Emily. We’d been trying for over 3 years (including insemination) to get pregnant and were just about to give up and spend a ton of money on IVF. I mean, we were really just waiting for my wife to get her next period and then we were going to start the process of IVF. However, that period didn’t come.

I’m always pretty optimistic. Even after 3 years, I was still always optimistic that this would be the month. I remember after her being a couple days late and saying she should try a home pregnancy test. She was convinced she wasn’t pregnant and refused. After she was about a week late, she humored me and took the test into the bathroom. I remember waiting and thinking about how our whole lives could be changed in the next minute or so (again, always optimistic). I still wasn’t prepared for the news though. She didn’t make any sort of reaction when she exited the bathroom. I thought it was because the test was negative. Turns out she was just in shock.

“I think it says I’m pregnant…” She said in a small voice. I instantly embraced her and we both teared up, cried, and then started laughing. We told our immediate family right away. We also told my 96-year-old grandmother who unfortunately didn’t make it to see Emily being born.

I’m constantly amazed by my daughter who is now three-and-a-half. She’s full of personality, has an active imagination, and an excellent grasp of the English language to fully express herself. Though having her took years, it was definitely worth the wait.