Surprise! It's a manatee!

How does one go about telling people she is pregnant? I still haven’t figure it out, so I sprung it on people at random unexpected moments. The shocked faces and disbelief were hilarious. Seth said he loved watching me tell people. I guess it was quite entertaining.

We received an assortment of reactions upon telling people that we are going to have a baby. We called my parents first. They were both out of the house visiting their parents for the evening. Being so anxious to finally start spreading the news, we called both of their cell phones. I've never called my mom's cell phone from Korea, so I thought she would be a little suspicious, but she didn't have a clue. I lied and told her that we needed to talk to them about our tax returns. She promised that she and Dad would Skype us when they got home. After coming up with some lame problem that we were having with our taxes, we finally (after a lot of dilly dallying on my mom’s part) got them to both sit in front of the web came. Instead of telling them, we held the ultrasound picture up to the screen. My dad had a grin on his face, and I knew that he instantly knew, but he was waiting for my mom to catch on. Silly mom! You'll never live this story down. We asked her if she knew what the picture was, and she said that it looked like the manatee that she had just seen on their vacation to the Florida Keys. Slowly, she processed what she was looking at and couldn't accept reality. Popping her mouth and eyes wide open, throwing her head back, and grabbing my dad's shoulder, she expressed her shock. They both had smiles plastered on their faces the rest of the conversation.

The instant we held the ultrasound up to the web cam Seth's Mom whispered into Dad Schuett's ear, “They're pregnant.” She started yelling out obscure baby names (that we’re probably gonna pass on, but thanks for the suggestions) and Seth's dad shed a few tears. They woke up the siblings, and we got to share the good news that they would be aunts and uncles and that Mom and Dad Schuett would be grandparents! We are going to give Shayla and Stacey what they have been bothering us for, a niece or nephew to spoil :)

I was getting extremely frustrated with the fact that Apryl was REFUSING to Skype us (maybe she wasn't refusing, but it felt that way . . . ) “We have plans that night.” “We're in bed.” “We just talked to you a week ago.” I knew she was getting suspicious because of our incessant calling. Finally, one evening while she was sitting in her robe hanging out with David, we were able to show them the ultrasound. Her reaction: weeping. Now, if you don't know my sister, you might call this a bad reaction to great news, but if you know my sister, you know that this was the most encouraging reaction we could have received. She explained that she was crying so much because she was soooooo soooooo happy that we were having a baby and sooooo sooooo sad that she couldn't be with me to help nurse me through all of the pregnancy quirks and to see the baby growing.

I think God gets a real kick out of surprising us. When Apryl was here to visit, she begged us to come back to the States. I told her that we were still thinking about staying for another year, but that if she and David had a baby, we would come home as soon as possible to be with them. God turned the tables and got us pregnant!

I had to inform my co-teachers of my pregnancy early on because I needed to take a morning off of work to see the doctor. The day after my doctor’s visit I was talking to one of my students in the hallway. My new, young, male co-teacher walked past and decided that he just had to know how the doctor’s visit went. Knowing what he was up to, I attempted to start a random, non-pregnancy related conversation. He didn’t get the hint, and asked the question I was dreading. How was your doctor’s appointment? Did you get to see your baby move? My student freaked out in the middle of the hallway by shouting, jumping up and down, and grabbing my arm. While this was taking place, my co-teacher crept off. Eventually, I got her to clam down and sternly told her, “It’s a secret, and if you tell any of the other students, you will be in big trouble.” After double checking that she understood, I began celebrating with her. She dropped by my office several times to chat about the secret. The very next day she brought me some very Korean Hello Kitty baby slippers :)

All of our co-teachers were both exhilarated and disappointed with the news. They are so excited that we are having a baby, but they understand that a baby means we will be leaving Korea soon. It’s great to know that they still want us here. During my commute, Mrs. Lee said, “I really hope that after your baby is one or two years old, you will come back to Korea.” I replied, “Oh yeah, I’d like to come back to visit.” “To visit!?” She repeated. Then I realized she wanted us to live in Korea again. Unless God decides to throw us for another loop, I highly doubt we will be back for good.

It was getting quite difficult to keep the secret, but we were determined to tell as many people as we could either in person or on Skype before revealing the news on Facebook. Finally, after nearly a two month wait, I surprised my students by showing them the ultrasound. The various reactions was so encouraging. Koreans are crazy for babies! They screamed, cheered, clapped, and sang. Some of the students asked the Korean English teacher if I was lying or joking. The Korean teacher explained that I am so slim that they didn’t believe I was pregnant. The students have said . . . “Teacher, you are so slim. It’s dangerous.” Teacher, you should be careful.” “Eat a lot for your baby.” “Listen to Mozart for your baby.” “Oh, teacher, don’t do that. Be careful.” One day after class, a group of about 10 students backed me into a wall and repeatedly rubbed and patted my stomach. The strangest part was that at this point, I didn’t have a baby bump, so they were just rubbing and patting my still flat stomach. Also, if they wanted to touch the baby, they would have had to touch uncomfortably low . . . I don’t think they realize that the baby is not where my stomach is :) One socially awkward student stayed after class, came uncomfortably close to my belly and tried to look inside it to see the baby. Her face was literally almost touching my stomach. I had to push her away and say no, no, no, you can’t see it . . . I can’t even imagine how many belly pattings/rubbings I’m going to get once I get a real baby bump . . . I might just start rubbing and patting people's bellies in return.