Tuesday 21 September 2010

The Big Reveal Dinner

Saturday, September 4th we had planned a traditional swedish crayfish party at my parents' cabin by the sea and invited my closest family. Our ulterior motive to eating lots of red shellfish, drinking a few schnapps and singing some obnoxious drinking songs, was of course to reveal our "little" secret.

As I struggled to decide what to wear Diver Dude kept laughing and pointing out how obvious my bump was becoming and that my family would know as soon as they saw me. After three or four changes I decided on an outfit including a big colorful scarf to distract and hide the bump and went inside to help Mamma with the finishing touches to the meal. She looked at me, smiled, rubbed my belly and said "good try Princess".

Around five they started arriving. Cousin Emil, his partner and their twin boys, cousin Ida with partner and two boys, my uncle Anton and his partner, and finally my Sister, Mr Sister and Nephew. The cabin was a warm chaos of hugs, happy voices and laughter. I was almost immediately cornered by Cousin Emil's partner who asked me with a wink if we were home for something other than just family time and before I had a chance to answer continued telling me a story about a friend of hers who switched fertility clinics and got pregnant with twins. I caught a few glances aimed at my mid-section but thankfully nobody dared to ask or comment about my mysterious one-point weight gain.

Everybody arrived hungry and we all sat down around the table before I had another chance to put a foot in my mouth. Diver Dude tapped his glass to get everyone's attention, cleared his voice and began saying the words we had rehearsed earlier: "First of all I'd like to say how happy we are that you all could make it here tonight, so I don't have to drink all the schnapps by myself. I think you all know the reason for us to come home this time was to do our second round of IVF. But when we talked to the doctor she told us that Circus Princess is not allowed to take the medication." Here he paused and we both looked around the room at the rows of raised eyebrows and open mouths before he continued: "And the reason for that is..." I stood up, lifted up my shirt to reveal the words Baby Bump embroidered on my maternity jeans, and said: "I'm already pregnant."

The noise on the porch drowned out the sound of the crashing waves. The symphony of laughter and words like what?, how? and when? made my heart so full of joy and gratitude I could hardly breathe. We were attacked with swarms of hugs as we tried to tell the story of our miracle, how we don't have any answers to how it happened, that we're still completely overwhelmed with happiness and that we just hope everything will turn out OK.

When everybody had settled and the noise died down a little my Sister quietly stood up and said: "Well, I might as well take this opportunity to tell you that we're expecting a baby too". This was followed by a second wave of loud congratulations and big hugs before we could finally dig in to our shellfish feast. And let me tell you, crayfish has never tasted so good.

25 comments:

  1. To be surrounded by family and good food, what a lovely unveiling! Congrats to your sister as well! Love the baby bump!

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  2. omg! Beautiful post and story. So happy for you.

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  3. That is so awesome! What a beautiful story! I'm so happy for you and how exciting that you and your sister are pregnant together!!! Oh and I love your pants!!! Did you have them embroidered for the ocassion or did you buy them like that? Hugs!!!

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  4. Congratulations Princess!! All your dreams are coming true. What a wonderful way to reveal the news!

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  5. I'm crying!! this is so lovely, like a dream :) best wishes to you and your sister!

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  6. I love, love, love reading about your story. You had like a one in a million chance! It must have felt so amazing to tell your family.

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  7. Oh how exciting!! I am sure that was a wonderful evening!!

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  8. So great! I'm glad you were able to make it memorable :)

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  9. YAY!!! What a great story! That gave me chills :)

    And thanks for being so nice to me on my blog- I appreciate the reality check.

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  10. So lovely! I can completely picture you telling them and the immense amount of joy in your family. I'm so happy for you!!!!

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  11. Just catching up... I love this story about the big reveal dinner - how wonderful!!!

    Also, loved the pics on the previous post - you look fabulous!

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  12. Beautiful post, love those pants.

    This post made me cry, both for happy reasons for you and selfish reasons for me.

    Hope all is still progressing well for you hon.

    xxxx

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  13. Those pants are soooo fantastic! And you and Sister get to be preggo together! WOOHOO!!!!

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  14. I'm so teary right now! Love, love, love this story. :)

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  15. Such as sweet, sweet story! I love it!

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  16. I've got goosbumps!! great dinner!! great reaction and celebration! Delighted for you! Fran

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  17. Diver Dude's speech made me laugh out loud and your Mom's reaction to your scarf made me smile and tear up a little! How sweet it must be for your Mom & Dad to see your happy, happy face now!
    XO

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  18. Jaha! Fast jag redan har hört hur det gick till när ni berättade, så sitter jag här med en stor klump i halsen och tårarna påväg, så synen blir alldeles suddig! Det är så fantastiskt! Bamse kram

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  19. those pants are awesome!

    how wonderful you were able to share "the big reveal" w/so many people, it sounds like it was a very special dinner.

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  20. I'm crying... and I'm at work! Your story moves me so much! I'm so happy for you!

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  21. love your story! goosebumps!

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