26 thoughts on “I’m Not Gabriel, but I have an Announcement and a Giveaway”

• When we told our parents that we were adopting (after having 3 biological children) we did a photo shoot and each child held up a # (#1-3) and on the fourth picture, we propped up a sign with the #4 next to a world globe that had an arrow pointing to Ethiopia 🙂

• When we told our family we were pregnant with our third, we just put our 18 month old in a “big brother” shirt for our thanksgiving dinner, and waited to see who noticed.

• This last pregnancy announcement to my husband family was fun. We had a family reunion scheduled around the time we were going to announce is so we told David’s cousin (the ONLY person we told) who was designing the t-shirts for the reunion. We asked her to add “baby #3” to our branch of the family tree. They passed out the shirts folded up and asked everyone to wait to see her design until everyone had one. It was fun seeing them find it …and how long it took some to finally see what everyone was saying “WOW” or “AWW” too! I think my MIL was the last to get it! 😀 Hehe… sneaky us!

• When we were expecting baby number four and the others were 3, 1 and 6 months we had our oldest JP tell the grandparents~I mean when a 3 year old delivers the news of new baby with excitement and love what can the grandparents do but be equally excited, right!?! 🙂
  Keep up the God work

• Thank you for the free download! And the giveaway!!
  I can’t remember a time I didn’t know about Mary being the mother of Jesus. My parents taught us from very early on.
  Our last pregnancy we found out the same day all my family was comoing over for dinner. So instead of waiting a couple weeks (our normal time), we just announced it that night. Nothing real special, just a gues what?! We’re Expecting!

• I remember being amazed that Mary gave birth to Jesus. I was very young so I couldn’t understand how it was possible for someone to have a baby, let alone such an important individual. I recall being totally consumed by this concept lol. As for my own four pregnancies, I was too excited with each one to come up with anything clever. As soon as I found out , I was on the phone calling everyone I knew!

• While taking a self-timed family photo, my husband yelled, “We’re having a baby!” right before the picture was taken. The reactions were priceless.

• We told my parents and sister by asking them what they had planned for next July. We had a special someone coming we wanted them to meet. They figured it out immediately and shouted with joy and congratulations.

• When I was pregnant with my first, we lived too far away to tell my parents in person. I bought a bunch of baby stuff that said I love my Grandma & I love my Grandpa and sent it to my parents. I made them wait until we were talking on the phone to open the package. It was a lot of fun.

• My husband Bill and I decided to take our then 7 year old daughter Erin to her favorite restaurant to tell her we were pregnant. Our dinner arrived as we told her she was going to have a little brother or sister. She paused a moment before she asked (clear as a bell, not hushed at all)…”is the baby going to come out your vagina?” My husband’s soup came out of his nose, and everyone around eagerly waited for us to answer!
  Apparently, while my sister was babysitting during the day, A Baby Story was a regular program. 🙂 Thanks Sis!

  • This is hilarious! I’m sure not at the time . . . but I got a good chuckle!!!!

    • No, it was pretty funny at the time too!

• Can’t wait to download this generous gift and get started with my boys! Thanks so much for sharing, Jodi. I can’t remember exactly how we told our families about our firstborn…a know a phone call was involved because we lived a few hours away. I DO remember how we told them we were expecting twins…we were so shocked by the news, we couldn’t wait. We immediately called our families to tell them about our “bonus blessing.” 🙂

• Well, we have a 6, so we have done a variety of things 😉 We’ve done the tee-shirt. We’ve just told. One we made flowers and included one for baby. One we told everyone on one of the kids birthdays. Gave him a new book about being a big brother and included an early ultrasound photo and note on the front page.

• Six weeks before our fourth child was born, we received a phone call asking us if we would consider adopting him. Needless to say, we weren’t quite ready for the 7 to 10 thousand dollars in legal fees, especially with only 6 weeks to prepare. So, our “announcement” was in the form of a prayer request for the Lord’s provision for Levi’s adoption. By God’s glorious grace, we had all we needed “just in time”. As I look into our sweet son’s face everyday, I’m reminded of the ultimate adoption…..God’s beautiful provision for us: how He does all the work and provides ALL that we need, that we may spend eternity with him.

  • Make me cry!!!!! Sweet . . . precious Levi!

• hi,
  I’ve enjoyed your blog page. Thanks for the encouraging words! Well, we have had 10 children and 4 little ones in heaven. We are a “baby-loving” family, so when I started showing any symptoms and was “acting” sick, my family immediately guesses,, “Mom’s pregnant!!!” No secrets here:)) To our extended families, since we live out of state from them, I often told them by letter or big news on emails!! Our daughter, Jenny, for her first baby (our first grandchild), told us one evening that they wanted a family photo. So we pose for the photo, which her husband is shooting, and he says,” 1,2,3, Jenny’s pregnant!!!” You should see the individual reactions on each of our faces! It was hilarious and a fun way to find out her news!!

  • Cute!!! This made me smile this morning as I read your story!

• When we were expecting we learned about the pregnancy in late November but didn’t have it confirmed until early December, just as our tradition of Bible reading through the “Advent Jesse Tree” began, giving the perfect window of opportunity and our initial explanation to our little girl in reminding and explained to her what Christmas was all about and explaining to her from the story of Mary in the Bible (trying to avoid any confusion of course) how Mary was having baby Jesus and then explaining that just as Mary was expecting, so also were we. Our daughter was thrilled to have a baby for our family on the way.

  During my pregnancy I also read “12 Extraordinary Women” by John MacArthur; in reading about Mary and Elizabeth coming together as they were both expecting; I was baling and in that moment new and named our new baby girl “Emily (for Emanuel) Elizabeth, the relationship of these to amazing women remembered in my daughter’s name =)

  • We love the Jesse Tree!!! Sweet story! Thanks so much for opening up and sharing!

• I wasn’t very creative when I told family, we just told them but I told my husband the first time by giving him a fathers day card because that is the day I found out. It took him a little bit to “get” it:)

• My husband and I sent my parents flowers with a card from the “new” baby to be! I was there when my Mom got the flowers at the door. Her reaction was priceless!

• We just told them we’re having a new baby. Everyone is always excited when a new baby comes along!

  • You won the Birth of Jesus Study!!! Congrats!!! Let me know you received this email!

    • Hi Jodi,

      I received your email! Yay!!!

      Thank you so much,
      Christianne

• It was at our daughter’s birthday party and the last gift was from us and she opened up the shirt and it said I’m the big sister! Everyone was in shock because she is the 2nd child and they were so happy to hear that we were expecting a 3rd.