Telling Our Families

This little picture I used on the blog, was actually created to tell our families.
Unfortunately we realized we wouldn't be seeing our families in person within the first trimester, so we decided to tell them virtually.
Ryan's youngest brother, Pat, decided on a whim he was going to come visit us in February. He flew in on Valentine's Day (way to kill the romance, Pat). I'm just kidding. We were so excited to have him!
I had been pretty tired and nauseous, so we knew that we were going to have to spill the beans to Pat, otherwise he would have been pretty suspicious or guessed anyways. When we picked him up at the airport, we handed him the picture above and said, "We got you a Valentine's Day card!". He was like, "This is weird. Why did you give me a card of you kissing...where's the third person?" He thought we had photoshopped him into the background somewhere as a joke since he was visiting...and then he realized the meaning of the card. He was very excited and I know we loved being able to tell someone in person.
My sister knew from very close to the beginning. About the second week I knew I was pregnant, the doctors tried to do an ultrasound and didn't see anything. They tested my HCG levels and they thought they were way too low. I was told to come back the next week and re-test. I was an emotional wreck. I didn't want to lose another pregnancy. I called my sister and cried. She was so excited about the baby and committed to calling me every single day throughout the entire pregnancy. She recites Psalm 91 (awesome if you have never read it) and then prays. She has done it every day since that initial call. She's my bestest friend, so I was so happy to have her throughout the ups and downs of the beginning of my pregnancy.
The weekend Pat was here we decided to tell our parents. Pat is a blabbermouth, so I didn't want it coming out to Ryan's family through him instead of us. The people we wanted to tell were Ryan's mom, my parents, and Ryan's other siblings. First up, we FaceTime'd Ryan's mom. Ryan's sister had twin boys in May, so I wasn't sure what her reaction would be since she already was a grandmother. She was so extremely excited. I actually filmed us telling both her and my parents. Looking back, I am REALLY glad that I did. I posted those videos below. We had to wait until that evening to tell my parents because my sister wanted to see it happen. I used Google Hangout and called my parents and sister (my sister lives about 4 hours away from them). As you will see in the video, my mom freaks out and my dad is pretty much speechless. This will be their first grand baby, so I knew they would be ecstatic. We ended up texting the Winter Getaway picture to the parents in the videos. That's how they found out. Then we texted the picture to Ryan's other brother and two sisters as well.
It was sad that we weren't able to do all of the revealing in person, but I am so grateful for technology nowadays and the fact that we were able to see almost everyone and talk to them through FaceTime or video chat. Everyone in the family was so excited (:
Here, you can see for yourself:



Check out some amazing newlywed advice & stories from Emily: