A Great Great Blessing

(This was written on November 12, 2021 but I’m only posting this now)

Nikki and I have been married for more than a year now. And as is often the case, people start asking if we’re pregnant. Since we got married during a pandemic, it was understandable that we would put off getting pregnant until the end of the pandemic was in sight. In a way, it gave us the perfect scapegoat for not trying the get pregnant right away. We simply say, “We’ll try after the pandemic,” and people just understand.

Truth is, whether we were actually trying to get pregnant or not, we would give the same excuse. It was our way of telling people, “We know you’re excited but don’t rush us.” If not for the pandemic, we would’ve said that we wanted to have a year or two with just the two of us before the chaos of parenthood would kick in.

In August of 2021, however, we decided to try to get pregnant. So armed with the knowledge of Nikki’s cycle using the Billing’s method, we waited patiently for the best time but we somehow missed it completely! We didn’t know where we went wrong but no worries, we thought. We’ll just try again the next month. And so we tried again in September. We actually thought we were successful as we saw certain changes in Nikki’s body and eating habits. Alas, her period came as scheduled and at that point, I didn’t know why I felt so sad.

We never had a baby and yet we both felt a great loss. It was such a strange feeling and yet I knew that our love for whatever children God would send our way already existed even before they did. October came and we celebrated our first year anniversary. We decided that we shouldn’t stress out so much about the previous much and not expect anything at the same time. Up to this point, my beautiful wife’s over preparedness kicked in and she was already reading up on becoming a mom. This time around, she put the motherhood books down. We decided that it may have added undue pressure and anticipation on our part.

Nikki’s period was due on October 29 but we noticed changes in her body as well so we decided to take a pregnancy test on the 27^th. I was told that if a pregnancy test was taken too early that the second line that would show would be very faint. True enough, we saw that very faint second line. At that point I was convinced but Nikki wasn’t. On the 29^th, we took another test and we saw yet again the second very faint line. Nikki, again wasn’t convinced but I knew it was a positive test.

As everyone we asked said you should test on the week after your missed period, we decided to test yet again on November 5. This time, the second line was undeniable. It was a great little surprise and just in time for my birthday on the 7^th. We told Nikki’s family individually that weekend and they were all happy for us. Her mom even said it was a great birthday gift from God to me. I couldn’t agree more.

We decided to wait for the ultrasound before telling my parents however. It was simply my paranoia telling me not to announce even to my family when we hadn’t heard the heartbeat yet so I kept my mouth shut for the next week. I so wanted to tell my parents that they would have another grandchild coming but I decided against it as I wanted everything to be okay in the first ultrasound at the very least.

So our schedule would’ve gone a certain way on November 12. We would have our appointment with Dr. Mendoza at 7am, we’d go to the Unchuan house to have a family meeting (a weekly meeting), I’d then leave at around 11am to pick up Nikki’s friend, Charmaine as we had a scheduled weekend trip with Nikki and her friends at Pinetree resort. Such would’ve been our schedule on that day. Alas, I had a fever the day before and so both our weekly meeting and the Pinetree trip were cancelled. I felt bad about it especially since I felt so much better on the morning of the 12^th. “Our trip got cancelled for nothing,” I thought.

So anyway, on the morning of November 12, we visited Nikki’s OB, Dr. Tin Mendoza for her first check up as a pregnant woman. We were probably 6^th in line and the five women who came before us finished very quickly. Nikki went in and due to restrictions, I wasn’t allowed inside. She took a long time inside the doctor’s office. I tried to entertain myself by playing Sudoku games on my phone but then I got bored. Nikki was taking much much longer than the other women who came before them. “It’s her first visit. Maybe it’s always this long,” I thought.

Then after almost an hour, she came out and I stood up to ask her how everything went. She then asked me to sit down. As Nikki was wearing a mask, I couldn’t tell if it was excitement or dread she had on her face. Her tone suggested something negative. A bunch of thoughts entered my mind including the possibility that the baby’s heartbeat couldn’t be heard. I braced myself for the worst as I sat down.

“Twins!” Nikki said.

“WHAT?!”

I couldn’t believe it. What seconds earlier I had anticipated as no heartbeat turned out to actually be two! She showed me the sonogram print out which I looked at and true enough - two babies! We had just conceived twins! I was overwhelmed with joy at the news. At the same time, I also felt anxious as we’d have to take care of two living breathing babies! We both needed to process everything on our walk back to the parking lot.

We had discussed that we would be happy whatever God gave us. Since children are a gift from God, we should be happy for any that He gives us. We were ready for a boy or a girl. We’d even accept a child with special needs because we knew that children are a gift from Him. The only thing we didn’t think was possible though was twins.

We both decided to have a breakfast together in Bo’s to process the news and assess our feelings. We also decided to tell my family not just the pregnancy news, but the twin news as well! We had a great breakfast. It wasn’t anything spectacular but everything tastes better with good news, I guess.

We drove to my family’s house and everyone except my dad was home. My mom and my two sisters also just naturally gathered in the dining room with me and Nikki. They were wondering why we dropped by unannounced but they didn’t seem bothered by it.

Then Nikki started telling them that we visited the OB that morning. They immediately got excited at that part of the news. My sister was particularly excited as she was jumping up and down with joy. We then proceeded to them it was twins! Both my sisters and my mom where all so shocked and excited at the news. Nikki then passed around the sonogram. Both my sisters teared up from the news and I couldn’t be happier. These little babies weren’t born yet and so many people where excited to meet them!

My dad arrived a bit late and instead of telling him, we just showed him the sonogram. People normally don’t know what they see in sonograms so while he didn’t get that we were having twins, he was still super happy and excited that we were pregnant. And he was ecstatic to find out we were going to have twins! My dad usually posts these things on Facebook so we had to tell him specifically that he shouldn’t. He did make one post though. He was just thanking God for the great great blessing that came his way.

Nikki then called up her brothers and parents and told them the twin twist to the news they already knew. Nikki and I went home and we just spent the rest of the day just processing the news we just got. Looking back, it was a good thing our trip was cancelled. Had we pushed though, we wouldn’t have our alone time to process the news just the two of us.

Next year, we’ll be a small family of four. We didn’t even get the chance to be a family of three yet and we’ll already by a family of four. Truth be told, I do feel anxious. Two kids will be a handful. Two kids will be much more difficult. But we both know that two kids are twice the blessings! And we know that God never ever gives us something we can’t handle.

Twins! I’m still in disbelief writing all this down. But I’m glad I did.