Some of you may have guessed it, but WE’RE PREGNANT!!!!! We are so excited about this baby and we are thrilled to finally announce it to the world (although I’ve been telling random strangers since we found out…like the clerk at the supermarket, the gas station attendant, etc.)!

I am 14w2d pregnant today, and Baby Ginter is due on August 26th.  Part of the reason I’ve been blogging so little is that so much of our lives revolves around this tiny human growing inside of me and we hadn’t made it public yet, and for the first few months I could barely keep my eyes open long enough to string together coherent sentences (although complete thoughts are still rare).  =)  
So, here’s Squirt at 7w6d (our first ultrasound) at just about 1.45 centimeters and with a heartbeat of 163 bpm…

And here’s the story of find out and sharing the news.

I suspected that I was pregnant when we left Nasir mid-December thanks to the insane exhaustion that hits IMMEDIATELY, but I waited to take a test until December 22nd for the most accurate results.  It was tricky, trying to purchase the test and then take it without anyone finding out, because our team was together almost everywhere we went (we share one car, so we do a lot of carpooling).  Miraculously, I was able to be sneaky (as I often am around Christmas) so that the team wouldn’t find out and it would be part of Blaise’s Christmas gift.

Here’s the test that changed everything…

So Christmas morning FINALLY arrived and I was awake at 5:30.  I hadn’t been that excited about a Christmas for YEARS, but this one was our first one in Africa and it was life-changing.  I managed to take a few catnaps until about 7:30, and then I decided that enough was enough…I couldn’t wait any longer.
I woke Blaise up and we prepared to exchange gifts.
I first gave him a set of sketch pads to open, as he had to leave his big one in the States when we moved over here.  He was excited about the sketch pads, and then I gave him the smaller gift bag to open.  The thought NEVER occurred to me that he might be expecting another drawing-related gift like pencils, but alas, he was.
When he pulled out the carefully packaged card, socks, and tests, he was completely shocked.  We both got all teary-eyed, hugged, and then looked at each other again.  And then he looked at the tests again, and he must have said, “Really??” about four times.  He finally said, “I thought I was getting pencils!” Haha!
Here was the BIG gift (not pencils)… 

We kept it quiet for several more weeks.  After our miscarriage last year, we wanted to have the early ultrasound before telling anyone about the pregnancy.  Announcing it to our families and our team was SO MUCH FUN! We Skyped with our parents after they received the small gifts we’d ordered online, and they opened them while we were on Skype.  Almost everyone cried and they were by far our favorite Skype calls home! Then we told our siblings and everyone else.  To those who text or email, we sent this series of iPhone pictures…

Shhhh, we have a secret…

There are THREE Ginters in this picture!

Baby Ginter coming in August 2014!!!!!

As I said, we are so excited! As each week passes, we are more and more anxious to meet this precious little boy or girl, and each milestone in the pregnancy is cause for celebration (usually with ice cream)! We finally decided that we do plan to find out if we’re having a boy or girl, and we have a small list of names started (though we are far from making any decisions…choosing names is TERRIFYING!).  We welcome ALL of your questions, and we will definitely keep you updated!

We ask that you join us in praying for a healthy pregnancy and a healthy baby.

Cheers,
Cass

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