Pregnancy Diary: 13 weeks (and a look back)

Hello family and friends. :) We made it through the first trimester! Some highlights:

- Sneaking away from Young Women class to sit in Relief Society and raising my hand for "good news." I raised my hand, said how long I had been looking forward to having this kind of good news, shared news of the pregnancy, stood up, blew a kiss and walked back to my young women class with a smile.

- Celebrating Thanksgiving and Christmas while imagining next year when baby Rice and baby Mclaughlin will be here.

- Breaking the news to friends and family. (Stories to come.)

Just for fun, here is the story of us finding out about our little one back in October:

After analyzing my calendar, I started to get a little giddy thinking there may be some news. After a few days, I came home and told Jeff I wanted to know. So- upstairs I went and then back I came to sit next to Jeff with a little test that was blinking an hourglass. If I remember correctly, we each thought outloud "oh man" in nervousness/anticipation. Blink, blink, blink...then...nothing. It was a dud.

I grabbed a bottle of water and ran to qfc to get another test. This time- the kind where you look for the line. At home, we tried again. I think that's a line. Barely. But any line is a line, right? Jeff was convinced, but I wasn't. I still did not know for sure.

So the next day after work, I came home with our third and final pregnancy test. It was a Sunday morning. Finally, a very clear: PREGNANT. I stared at it for quite a while, smiling. Then I went to sit in the future nursery to soak it all in and say a couple prayers.

Later at church a mommy near us asked me to hold their baby girl. She grinned at us both and I was overwhelmed with gratitude and warmth. I said another silent prayer and promised my Heavenly Father to do the best I could.

That was such a great day. :)