Keeping Secrets

We have made the conscience decision to not tell people that Sara is pregnant until around Christmas time. Our motivation for this is twofold. First, we need some time to come to grips with this change in our lives and to learn a bit before sharing the news. And second, the early stages of pregnancy are always risky and we wanted to get through this phase before making a broad announcement. We are both in agreement about this decision, and so we are working hard to carry it out.

Why is it hard work? We are both so excited that it's hard to not just bring it up in conversation. And, to make things even more difficult, we have a lot of friends who are pregnant or who recently had a baby. So the general topic seems to keep coming up in conversation anyway. In fact, just last night we were at a young adults event at church and there were two other pregnant women there, and a 3 month old baby. But we were good, and we kept our secret.

It was also really hard to keep the secret over Thanksgiving. Jeff and Nadine (my brother and his wife) were visiting for the holiday. And Sara just had the first positive test result the day before they arrived. So clearly it was on our minds! And it was really hard to keep the secret when we had some friends visiting from Iowa last week and the topic of pregnancy came up in the evening's conversation.

Fortunately, Sara and I are both professionals at keeping secrets. Well, sort of. Since we both held security clearances when we worked for the government, we know a thing or two about keeping secrets. Even so, I do wonder how good of a job we are doing. When people around us start talking about baby things, are we just a little too interested? Do we know just a little too much about car seats, baby carriers, and strollers? Do we talk too loudly when our windows are open and the neighbors are passing by? Who knows. At least this secret won't harm national security if it gets out! And, fortunately, we don't have to keep the secret for too much longer.