You should have seen his face...

Dear Soybean,

Happy Sabbath, first of all, little one.  I know it's a day of rest but I think you've been doing plenty of that already, hehe.  Don't you think it's about time to come?

I'm looking back today and thinking of when I called your Uncle Adam on my way to your Great Aunt Cindy's 50th birthday party.  I didn't get him on the first try so I left him a voicemessage telling him that since he wasn't going to be at the party to hear the big announcement, I wanted to go ahead and let him know first.  He was an uncle!   Of course, I didn't get to hear his reaction but his girlfriend was with him when he listened to the message and said he was whooping and hollering... simply elated.  I got a call back  from him shortly afterwards and he made me make him an absolute promise--to make sure that someone took a video of your Grandpa Scheffler's face as he heard the news he'd be a grandpa for the first time.  He was positively serious and I made good on my promise.  Thing is, your Uncle Adam never saw the video; he died only 15 days later.  I feel badly that I waited too late to share it...  BUT here it is now.

Your Uncle Stephen texted me at 4:05am the other night saying,

"I was just thinking about how excited Adam would be right about now.  How much sleep he would lose because he was too happy anticipating his niece's debut."

Last night your dad and I watched the video again and talked over the experience of the Big Announcement.  We both felt it was so surreal, so perfect, so overwhelming.  We both expected a good reception for the news but nothing like what we got.  I'm telling you, I may have never felt as loved as I did in that moment.  There was a literal ROAR of love that swept up your dad and I and surrounded us on all sides for a loooong time. 

I guess having the father-to-be being the one to take the video was a mistake, as he got so many bear hugs that most of the video is of people's feet, but how could you ask someone else to take the video with the request to make sure they kept your Grandpa Scheffler's face in view without arising suspicions? 

I was so nervous, as you can probably tell from the footage.  I even felt a remnant of the stress coursing through me again as I watched the video last night.  I guess I just wanted everything to go perfectly and there were still all the questions of what kind of horrible situation it'd be if I were to have a miscarriage (since it was still so early in the pregnancy) and have to go back and tell everyone after them being so happy for us.  Plus, there had been the stress of trying to make sure everyone was out there to hear the news without giving ourselves away.  I can't tell you how many times one of the uncles or my dad would disappear into the house and as soon as I made sure he was outside, another one would disappear  :-)

Start the video at the 3min45sec mark if you want to skip a lot of the fluff.  And, yes, the look on my dad's face was priceless.  Just wish your Uncle Adam could have seen it.  After seeing this video, you can never doubt that you aren't the most loved and wanted baby ever.