Taking the "test"

It was Friday of last week, 6 days after my period was supposed to have come. Charlie suggested that we wait to do this because I had been sick the previous month with the flu; we thought that the stress on my body might have pushed the menstrual cycle back a few days. And since I have been having minor cramps for a few days, it seemed even more plausible that my menstruation was about to start.

But I was really curious and wanted to know if I should be staying off vices like coffee, coke, and beer.

So I went to Walmart and bought a home pregnancy test that came with two kits. Having never had reasons to browse this section before it took a while to decide which to buy. A recommended buying one that had several kits because "you always want to be sure" but still, I didn't think we'd need three, especially since some of them now claim to be able to let you know even BEFORE your missed period. (However, if you use the test, after your missed period, the accuracy goes up to 99%.)

After a nice meal and some time to relax (well, only about 5 - 10 minutes), we broke open the package and I went into the bathroom to pee into a cup. (I made Charlie read the instructions and actually dip the stick in the "liquid" so that he could participate in the process.) Even though the instructions said to give it 3 minutes, the results seemed to show up instantaneously. "Pregnant" it said. (I bought one that had a "digital reading" because I didn't want to deal with interpreting "lines.") The simplicity of this process took us by so much surprise that we both remained silent for a few minutes.

But there it was, in black and white, "pregnant." So we hugged each other and congratulated ourselves on becoming "preggers" and then proceeded to take 10+ photos (using Charlie's nice 8 mega pixel digital SLR) of the stick with its reading "pregnant." We even contemplated bringing the test kit/stick to the family dinner next week as a way to announce our "news."

But God must have taken a pity on our poor family and decided that it would ruin their dinner to have to look at a stick that I had peed on; the writing disappeared the next morning when we woke up.

Oh well, at least we've got the 10+ photos to show for the moment. And if that's not good enough, we still have one more test left in the kit. I don't mind peeing into the cup again as long as the test results will be the same.

But yeah, only one month into the new year, we have indeed become "preggers."

I guess God really wanted us to be parents and didn't want to give us any chance to go back on our decision to be "open" to whatever His plan is for us.

So lesson here is, don't ask God to tell you something unless you're really prepared to listen and ... obey.