Thought the third deployment would be easier...

Then I found out about this...

Yep. Three days after I got on a plane to leave the country for a year, we discovered that Emily was indeed pregnant.  She even sent me the pee-stick to prove it.  I have it displayed in my room like a proud dad would put up the most recent crayon drawing.  We waited until Thanksgiving day for the big reveal to be sure things were going smoothly, so if you're just finding out, you're not far behind.  Emily's 1st sonogram was not long ago and so far everything looks normal; it has two of the things that it's supposed to have two of, and one of each thing that it's supposed to have one of.  Hopefully not a sign of things to come, it was uncooperative during the exam and would not position itself to allow us an early guess at the gender.  We'll know that before Christmas probably.

Here's what we do know.  At the time this post was published, Emily had just reached thirteen weeks.  Don't get me started on the whole pregnancy calculating thing.  Apparently not everyone tracks the pertinent information as well as Emily does and so the natal community prefers to just throw in a couple extra weeks for good measure.  But anyway, thirteen weeks.  For those doing the math in their head right now, I left the country about nine weeks ago, so relax.  Anyway, the official due date is June 1st, 2012.  I've already submitted my request to take my two weeks of leave at the beginning of June.  Please pray for a problem-free pregnancy, and that my request can be filled based on what's available.  I have to miss the next six months of growth; I can't imagine how disappointed I would be to miss the birthday, but we know that's a real possibility, especially with the unexplained inability to accurately predict how long that thing needs to cook.

So how are we feeling?  Well... We were both surprised and I will admit this was not in our five year plan.  (It wasn't really in Emily's 30 year plan :-).  But we also have to admit that we're not steering this ship, and through decisions we obviously made, and God's providence, here we find ourselves.  Friends who know us well will understand that we're both still adjusting to the news, but there's no getting around the excitement to see what the two of us have created with God's blessing.  Emily was able to spend the busiest shopping day of the year with her mom checking out cribs and baby things, and through nervous laughter she will tell you that she's looking forward to meeting this thing as much as I am.

So, that's about all the news that's fit to print.  Please pray for us.  It's gonna be a long year.  But coming home will be so sweet.

Feel free to comment below.  I read them all.

- Jeff