How We Told Our Family

I wanted to share the story of how we announced our pregnancy. (No, we are not expecting No. 2--I just wanted to document how we told the family that Kate was on the way.) I have been meaning to write this for Kate's baby book, so I thought I would share it here as a motivating factor. I love to hear about neat ways that people share their pregnancy news.

We found out we were expecting at the end of October 2006. We were so excited! We wanted to wait until we were several weeks along before we made our special news public, and we realized that at Christmastime, I would be nearing the end of the first trimester. Perfect opportunity to tell the family in person!

It turned out that we would be spending Christmas with Tanna's family in California that year. It was the first time in a while that his family would be together for Christmas on Christmas Day, actually. (We had spent the first two Christmases of our marriage with my family.) We knew we wanted to tell them on Christmas, but we needed to figure out how.

The year before, I had made a small (8x8) scrapbook of photos from that year (2005) for each family within my family. I made a total of five--one for: my Mom and Dad, my oldest sister and her family, my next sister and her fam, my brother's family, and us. Needless to say, it took me a long time, and I worked on these for months as I had the time. I wanted to do the same for Tanna's family, too--so why not incorporate the pregnancy announcement with the scrapbook? An idea was born!

The Lim Family, December 2006

The first page is supposed to have a complete family photo, which we took on our trip to California with everyone. I made the layouts with a space to add the photo later. (I am a slacker because I still have not put the photo in our book.)

The next few pages are photos of Tanna's parents or events about his parents.

After that, I went in birth order. So the next few pages are of Tanna's brother's family. (I'm not showing all of the pages--just a few, so you get the idea. The scrapbooks aren't too elaborate, just a sampling of family photos from the year. I thought that others could go back and add journaling or other details if they wanted.)

The next few pages are of Tanna's sister's family.

Next, it was our turn, as Tanna is the youngest. So there are a few pages of us ...

And then on the last page, a picture of Kate!

We wrapped up the scrapbooks, and Tanna gave them to each family after the kids had opened their presents on Christmas morning. They know I am a scrapbooker, and I'd made books for them before, so I am sure getting a scrapbook was no surprise or anything out of the ordinary.

Tanna's parents looking through their scrapbook on Christmas morning.

It was so fun to watch them flip through the pages. Some lingered on the photos longer than others. It was Kymber, Tanna's sister, who first made it to the end of the book and saw the ultrasound pic. She kind of studied it and then her eyes got really wide and her jaw dropped. She looked at us with tears in her eyes and was so excited. She kept telling the others: "Turn to the last page! Turn to the last page!"

There were more tears and lots of hugs and such. They couldn't believe we'd kept it a secret for so long! Kymber--who was very pregnant with Jordan at the time--said when she looked at the page with Kate's ultrasound pic, she wondered, "How did they get my sonogram?"

Tanna snapped a pic of me telling my family. I know it's silly, but I wish I was wearing something elseI don't like that shirt I'm wearing. Blech. I got rid of it soon after that.

Later in the day, we called my family in Tennesseee and shared our big news. They were thrilled as well. Technically, my sister Robin knew--she had guessed it already. Oh, and we had to e-mail my sister Cindy and her family in Spain (we weren't at a good place to make an international phone call). Once they responded and we knew they knew, we told others. :o)

Christmas Day 2006--Newport Beach, California

It was a great day, and a memorable time. Kate has been welcomed and loved from the very beginning. We are so thankful for our blessing from God.

_______

How did you announce your pregnancy?