Our Surprises!

If you know Dave & me at all, then it's no shock to you that we absolutely *love* surprises! Needless to say, we had a lot of fun planning how we would tell our parents that we are adopting! Our fun started two weekends ago on Saturday night when we had my (Bethany's) parents over for dinner. Even though the crib isn't completely finished, Dave had set it up in the nursery, and we had arranged blocks on top of it to say "We Are Adopting a Baby."

After my parents were here, we told them that we weren't quite ready to eat because the hotdish in the oven needed a few more minutes. Dave said he would show them his latest woodworking project, so my parents naturally headed to the garage (aka "the woodshop"). When Dave redirected them toward the empty bedroom, I think my mom started to get suspicious. (Little did they also know that we had set up a videocamera to record their reactions!)

My mom opened the nursery door first, and you could hear both her & my dad gasp! At first, my dad said, "Princess, are you pregnant?" and, at nearly the same time, my mom started jumping up and down and screaming, "No Kal--read the blocks! Read the blocks!" My mom didn't stop jumping up and down for quite a while, and the entire time she was just screaming questions--"Is it a boy?" "Is it a girl?" "What state?" "Have you done your homestudy yet?"

Once we answered all her questions, and they started to calm down a little, we gave them little grandpa and grandma presents. (I personally think my dad's "Grandpa loves trains and me" shirt is absolutely adorable!!) When we finally sat down to eat dinner (nearly an hour later), Dave blessed the food, and before he said "Amen," I could hear my dad sniffling. After the prayer, my dad just sobbed and sobbed, saying "We have been praying for this for so many years! Every morning and evening we would pray together for this." It was one of those precious moments that I will never, ever forget.


And I love this picture of my mom & Dave laughing while watching it all again (and again) on the videocamera!


Our fun in telling Dave's parents occurred one week later, when we flew to Colorado for Easter! Tim & Susie recently celebrated their 35th anniversary, so on Friday night, we said we wanted to give them their belated anniversary present. (At this point, I'm surprised they didn't become suspicious, since our family doesn't usually give anniversary presents. They also didn't seem to think it was strange that we set up our camera right when they started opening the gift.)

Their present was a framed picture of Dave and me in front of crib. Dave & I were waiting with bated breath while they opened it. This is exactly what they said:

Susie: Oh this is such a cute picture! You guys look great! Tim, look how cute it is!
Tim: That is a cute picture of you two! Wow!
Susie: I just love this frame--the wood is....WHAT?!?!?

And that is when Dave perfectly snapped this picture!

Needless to say, they were completely shocked! They, too, had endless questions, and we stayed up until nearly midnight talking. We also had a little grandma gift for Susie. She is best-known for her fabulous cooking, so we had a little apron made that says "Grandma's Little Taste Tester." While the guys all skiied the next day, Susie & I went to an adorable little baby store in downtown Steamboat called "Duck Duck Goose."

We are all so excited to meet this little one...and in the meantime, the baby gear and sweet gifts just keep piling up! All the district music teachers are throwing me my first shower this Monday!