The Announcement: March 24th, 2011

Ashley and I decided to wait until after she finished her first trimester to make the full announcement to everyone. Before we told everyone there were only a handful of people that knew. We each told one person the morning the test came back positive, and we told our parents within a month.

When we told my parents, Ashley stressed out afterwards because she didn't think my mom was excited. I told her that she was but this is some big news to swallow. I think Ashley was expecting my mom to scream and run around like she had just won the lottery. When I talked to my mom later, she says she doesn't think she showed excitement when my sister told her she was pregnant with each of her kids. She said that it has nothing to do with having another grandchild because she has no problem spoiling him or her, she was just worrying about Ashley and I more than anything. My mom knows that I stress more than I need to when it comes to money so she just doesn't want to see me kill myself over this, figuratively speaking that is, I promise I am not suicidal.

When we told Ashley's dad, I was more nervous than when I asked him for his daughter's hand in marriage. Yes I played the traditional card. On the way over there Ashley said, "I hope he is excited. Do you think he will be excited?" My response was, "I sure hope so because I don't have very good life insurance yet!" Ashley decided to just hand him the ultrasound picture and wait for his reaction. He was definitely excited but did not want to get too excited because of what happened to his only other grandchild. Ashley's sister had a baby boy, Jonathan Wentworth Jr., in 2004, but unfortunately only three months later Johnny passed away from SIDS. So Ashley's dad already got excited about his first grandchild when tragedy struck. That is what made telling Ashley's dad so special to the both of us.

When Ashley and I decided to tell everyone we both posted Facebook status' at the same time. I mean what other way is there to tell a mass amount of people at the same time? I can't imagine what it was like in 1999, having to call and talk to everyone, that sucks. Ashley's read, "Roses are red, Violets are blue, on October 2nd our little miracle is due." and mine read, "So I know it's only March but Ashley and I already know what we are going to be for Halloween... PARENTS!" Ashley got more comments and likes than I did, that was disappointing because it's very clear that everybody likes me more.

Tip #12: No matter how hard it is to tell people, it is such an awesome feeling when finally everybody knows.

And this is when everyone found out that I was on my journey to, destination... dad.

The Test: January 29th, 2011

Ashley had already taken the test once, maybe a couple weeks before, and it was negative. So we just assumed it wasn't meant to be, we were a little depressed but I guess the time just wasn't right. But during this week, Ashley kept saying she didn't feel right, she had some stomach pain and would get random headaches. So the night of January 28th she told me that she was going to take the test in the morning, I said, "Ok. Whatever you want to do, you already took one and it was negative, why would it change now?"

Now before we get to the next morning let me give you a little background on myself. I work 40 hours a week, sometimes more, and I am a full time student at Old Dominion University. This is my 6th year and I am finally graduating, so you can call me a super duper senior. Each week my two scheduled days off are Tuesday and Thursday where I am in class from 10am to 9pm. So really I do not have a day off and I never get to sleep in. I work in the hotel business and January/February is not exactly the most popular travel months, so my hours had just been cut down to 32 a week. So this Saturday morning that she plans to take this test is my first day to sleep in for the past couple of months.

Now back to the next morning. Ashley decides she is going to wake up at 8am and go to the bathroom. She kind of woke me up when she got out of bed but I just fell back asleep. She comes back out of the bathroom and just sits next to me on the bed and is staring at me. Now here I am asleep and I open my eyes to her staring at me with a grin on her face. I look at her and say, "It's 8am what the hell are you so happy about." she says, "It's positive." and I reply, "And I'm positive that if you don't leave me alone I'm gonna push you off the bed... wait, what is positive?" I had forgot all about the test she was going to take, I was just trying to sleep in for once. When I finally realized what she was talking about I looked at her and grinned and said, "Are you serious? Because I swear to God if you are just joking I will again push you off the bed." Of course she was telling the truth, we hugged and cherished that moment, I was really surprised I didn't cry. I then looked at her and said, "Now what?"

Tip #3: Remember everything!

And this is when I realized that the plane left without me on my journey to, destination... dad.