IT'S A...

 (Hold it. Now, before you get all scroll happy and look waaaay down at the bottom of this page to find the answer-- don't. Humor me, won't you? I promise to try not to bore you with long winded details. And do you really want to be that person who reads the last page of a story first? I promise it's a sweet story :) Well now that I've hopefully won you over with my awesome persuasion skills, let's get back to it.)

Do Not Open. 

Those three little words written in permanent marker on a plain white envelope held so much power in our household. Behind those words, enclosed in that envelope was our little one's best kept secret. Is Baby Pete a boy or a girl? 

Now, most human beings know that there's a 50/50 chance of their child being a boy or a girl, but my husband was certain that there was a little penis growing inside of me. In my husband's mind I would be giving birth to a 6ft tall infant who'd immediately be drafted to the NBA. Lord help me and my lady parts if I deliver a child that huge. I, on the other hand, was absolutely certain I was cooking up a mini mommy.  I truly just want a healthy baby but it's fun to picture what your baby is and how they'll fit into your life. And I'm not going to lie, there's a small piece of me that would get total amusement out of watching my husband's whole life flash before his eyes at the reveal of a baby girl. She would steal his heart and his tough guy act instantly.

Modern medicine amazes me. I can't believe how quickly and accurately parents can find out the  sex of their babies nowadays. We opted for the panorama screening at 12 weeks which detects chromosomal abnormalities by drawing blood from the mother since  it is a no-risk test with an over 99% accuracy rating. As a bonus, this test also can reveal the sex of your baby. We asked our midwife to seal the results of our baby's sex in an envelope for us to reveal alone together. Most things in pregnancy are out of our control and I wanted just one moment that we could plan for ourselves to intimately enjoy together without doctors or medical professionals. Besides, on the day that our doctor handed us the envelope she also gave us other news that was a little scary. I'll get into that news in a future post, but I'm glad  the reveal of our baby's sex wasn't muffled by the reveal of other potentially life-changing and difficult information. So we took the envelope and confidently tucked it away for the next few weeks.

Our trip to Aruba was the perfect opportunity for us to be alone and have time to soak in the news as new parents before sharing it with the world. Our favorite memories together are from traveling to different parts of the world and embracing new cultures. We fall in love with each other all over again every single time. One thing that we look forward to the most in parenthood is exposing our child to the world and seeing it through their eyes. So it only seemed fitting that we would choose  an item crafted in Aruba to reveal the sex and be a gift for our sweet baby to remember this moment and destination by.

On our second day on the island we found these hand-crafted maracas in an open air market. Babies love noise makers and we thought they would make a beautiful display in the nursery. The pink would represent a girl and the teal would represent a boy.

The evening of our reveal we asked our resort manager, Davia, to take the envelope and maracas and wrap up "the one." We also asked her to place the envelope inside the gift bag too as double confirmation. Davia was overwhelmed with emotion and was as grateful to us as we were to her. After getting dolled up, Davia handed us the gift bag and we headed to Papiamento, a charming poolside restaurant in the center of town.

We arrived at Papiamento with butterflies in our stomachs from the anticipation of one of the greatest surprises of our lives. Regardless of the outcome our reaction would be the same, but there's something uniquely special about the moment you find out if you are having a son or daughter. We sat at our table for two under a canopy of string lights, trees and stars. It was absolutely perfect.

We couldn't wait any longer. Before we even turned a page in our menu, it was time. My husband looked at me with the gift bag in his hands and asked me to reach in and pull out our gift. A sudden rush came over me and I started saying over and over with a huge smile on my face, "I'm so nervous! I don't know why... I'm so nervous!" He was equally as giddy and we both nervously laughed as I reached in the bag and slowly pulled out the maracas. This was it.

EEEK!!! IT'S A GIRL!! 

I screamed, cried, and shook those maracas in the air before opening my eyes and staring at my husband who was laughing, smiling, and saying over and over "That is so funny! That is so funny!" As if God himself played a joke on him! It was hysterical, emotional, and  all around one of the most magical moments of our lives! The guests sitting at the tables near us thought we had just gotten engaged from all of our commotion. Once I screamed, "We're having a girl!!" people congratulated us and we spent the whole night reveling in the thought of our beautiful baby girl. We imagined her personality, whose traits she might have, and how we would be as parents. It felt like a dream.

 Dear my sweet baby girl,  

On June 26, 2014 we learned that you would be our daughter. You are the precious little girl who is growing inside of me and in that very moment I felt connected to you in a way that I hadn't quite felt before. And in that same moment, your daddy looked at me in a way that he never quite had before... Like he just fell in love with me all over again but this time he also fell in love for the first time with you, his sweet baby girl.

Love, 
Your mommy

(Krista)