Baby Clem-in-Timeline

So the first question we always get asked as people find out we are expecting is, “Were y’all trying???” I always respond with a smile, “No, no ma’am or sir we were not trying.”  Now, I’ll be honest, I’ve had baby fever since about the second week of our marriage. Matt would always say he couldn’t take me anywhere without me pointing, staring, or ogling at a baby. He called it my “babydar”. He joked I could spot a baby mile away.  I do love babies, however, no we were not trying. I did not “pull the goalie” as our friend Ashley Ludeker so hilariously calls it. We didn’t do anything unusual or have a sudden switch of birth control. No, we were preventing-but God had bigger plans.

How did we find out? This will be a story we will never forget-one that will live on forever amongst the Clem family. I was five days late in the month of February but thought nothing of it. I thought with the stress of busy season (tax) coming and Matt’s school situation unfolding, my body was just acting funny. I didn’t think there was any way on Earth that we were pregnant. I was determined it was not a possibility. My running buddy Ashley, a.k.a. my other half in Austin(we’re a perfect match-even our husbands have man-crushes on each other), who knows more about my life than she probably ever thought possible, suggested that it was time for us to get a pregnancy test. I thought okay, I’ll text Matt and have him pick me one up on his way from home. He agreed and brought home the fancy  $12 EPT test. That day after I got home from work, I quickly headed to the restroom and was ready to see my affirmation that stress had made me late. Well, I took the test. Supposedly, if you are pregnant, you will see a “+” and if you are not you will see a “-“.  This wasn’t my case. I took the test and I saw an “I”. No plus, no minus, just a solid vertical line. Matt and I both were like okay, I obviously did that wrong. We decided to eat dinner and try again. So we did.  Lo and behold, the second test was also an “I”. At that point, we were super frustrated and I had proclaimed to Matt, Ashley, and myself that I was NOT pregnant. Two days later, I decided it was time to call the EPT hotline. I thought that could give me some answers. During work, I went downstairs and made the call. After some holding on the phone (15 minutes which felt like 10 hours) I talked to a woman and told her my circumstances. She responded with, “Well ma’am, congratulations, you are pregnant.” I quickly told her thank you and didn’t believe her for a second. I decided I was going to take another pregnancy test. This time we weren’t going fancy; I was going to use the $4 test from HEB. So I did and within two seconds, I saw two blue lines telling me that I was going to be a Mom.

How did we respond? Terrified, absolutely terrified. We had only been married 5 months. We had so many unknowns coming our way. Matt was applying to grad schools all over Texas, I was headed into 60 hour work weeks with no idea what it looked like to be pregnant, and we had no idea how to be parents. Brokenness. Complete and utter brokenness. It was amazing. It was life changing. I have never been more amazed by what a faithful and sovereign God we serve. I will have to tell y’all more about it in a later post, but we could not have been more surrounded by His love, mercy, and kindness during those next couple weeks.

This child is a child of God. We will raise her/him to know that. We want this child to be a testimony to God’s faithfulness and ever-renewing mercies. I cannot wait for this miracle Clementine to know how much God loves her/him. This child was God’s gift. We cannot help but sing praises knowing that this was God’s plan all along. Our baby is going to be a testimony of God’s love for His children.

As I write this I still feel overwhelmed that God had planned for us to have a child and become parents so soon after we were married, and I know that our marriage-and our faith-will become stronger because of it.

Please continue to pray for Clementine’s growth and development.

:) Happy Easter! :)

Hope our baby has my sense of style! :)