As shocking as that might sound to our family, Shawnna and I have actually been talking about starting a family for close to a year. After years of telling everyone that we weren't going to have kids, we began discussing the desire to start a family toward the end of 2005. For me, I was never really opposed to having kids, but when asked by family and friends, I said I didn't want kids so it wouldn't become a repeat question (i.e. I wanted to avoid the badgering that many couples face from their families as they progress through their relationship, especially after marriage). I figured that deciding if (and when) I wanted to have kids should be a personal choice, free from outside pressure and that's exactly how it played out.
I knew that if I was going to have kids, I wanted to make sure I would be able to provide for them financially and emotionally. By the end of 2005, Shawnna and I had put ourselves in a great position from that standpoint and decided that if we were going to do it, now would be the optimal time. We spent months discussing the next steps and, without boring you with the details, we began practicing.
Fast forward to Sunday, October 29, 2006 - we had been trying to conceive for a little while and Shawnna hadn't had her period for the month, so we thought it was time to take a pregnancy test. It was 6:30am and we found ourselves pacing around the bedroom for 3 minutes while the test was determining our future. When the wait was up, we crept toward the applicator and stared at our fate - PREGNANT! After a double-take, we shared the moment realizing we were actually going to be parents. The emotions were many, but the dominant feeling was extreme joy with a pinch of fear (and a touch of "I'm the man" :-). It still hasn't totally sunk in, but it's becoming more real as time passes.
