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THE HAPPY NEST — Do any of you have those moments in your life you wish you could have back and do over? I'm talking about those moments that only happen once in a lifetime and you think to yourself, "You know what? I could have handled that differently." That moment for me is when my wife told me she was pregnant with our first child.
I'd like to set it up a little bit so you don't all think I'm the worst father ever. However, you likely think I'm close considering all the other things I've shared in my Have You Seen This? articles.
When my wife and I were dating, a doctor told her she most likely would never be able to have her own children, and if she did, it would be incredibly difficult. We always assumed we'd try and if it didn't work, we would go down the adoption route. I can't speak for my wife, but that's what I had prepared for and what I was expecting.
We'd been married a couple of years, we had both finished school and were starting out in our respective careers in our first jobs and we had just closed on our first house, a lot going on. We decided we would start trying to get pregnant because if it didn't work, the adoption process takes awhile. All in all, we figured it would take another three to five years before we had a little bundle of joy and we figured we'd be ready by that time.
It was Valentine's Day and we had made this decision just a week ago. My wife had a feeling and decided to take a pregnancy test, which I rolled my eyes at. After she looked at the result she looked at me and with a smile on her face and a tear in her eye she calmly said, "We're pregnant."
What did I say? "Huh." It wasn't a, "please repeat yourself," huh, it was a, "I have no words because this was not the plan and I don't know what we're going to do and I need a few minutes if not days to process this," huh.
Truth is I was ecstatic and was beyond excited that we were having a baby. Nearly 10 years later, our beautiful little girl isn't so little anymore and she has two siblings to drive her nuts, but I'll always feel bad about the reaction.
"Huh," really, that's the best I could do? Yes, I'd like that moment back and I'd like to do it like this stork couple did.
Stork couple celebrates their first egg..
— Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden_) July 31, 2020
Sound on! pic.twitter.com/x75ZKM9c3a
These storks had a camera on their nest and caught the moment their first egg was laid and how the reacted. It's priceless as both birds clearly get excited as they snap their beak in what sounds like a rousing round of applause and then throw their heads back and let out a screech.
To me it's not a bad screech, but one of joy. Basically like they're saying, "We're having a baby! Everyone, we're having a baby!" It's amazing to watch and should bring a smile to the face of everyone who watches it.
So, to my wife, I'd like to apologize that my reaction to the announcement of our first child can't even come close to rivaling what a couple of storks did, and to my first born child, I'm sorry I started our relationship together with, "huh."
Have You Seen This?
