Surprising My Hubby about Baby #7

 Almost a year after his arrival, I have the bandwidth to write down the birth story of our "third last child" - Malachi Jarrott.

Malachi was conceived on my birthday - days past my ovulation date, when all the symptoms said we were clear.  (We knowingly didn't use protection, but there are secondary reasons for that, which is another story and testimony.)  I should have started my period when I was at Women's Encounter with my sisters and niece.... But it didn't show up. (Glad they didn't notice!) After a week, I took a test.

For all of our 6 previous children, Paul has either known because we were planning, or has been suspicious, so I have never surprised him with pregnancy news.  I sat on this surprise for days, and finally my chance came.  Paul's work had done a big remodel and had added a new cafeteria.  He had been asking for me to come visit, so I took the two little girls and went up to eat lunch with him for his birthday.  (It was actually the day before his birthday.)  I told him I would text him from the parking lot to let him know we had arrived.  So I texted, "We're here." and then "PS. I'm pregnant."

He was already waiting at the door for us and saw me pull in, so he didn't check his messages.  We sat at the cafeteria and he ordered some food for the girls and we sat down to chat.  It was pretty obvious he hadn't read my text, so I said, "You need to check your messages."  He's like "okaaaay...." and picked up his phone.  He looked at the message, and then looked up at me and asked, "Is this a joke?" 

It wasn't, but at the same time, it was.  I knew he wouldn't react in front of the coworkers in the cafeteria (they already tease him about his big family), and we couldn't talk about it in front of the girls unless we wanted the whole world to know, which I definitely wasn't ready for.  I could tell he was surprised and confused and happy, but he just said, "I have so many questions."

There was definitely a lot of texting (and deleting texts from my phone because of snooping children!).  So Malachi was part of both of our birthdays in the summer of 2024.

We finally started telling people in September, when I couldn't hide it any longer.  We told the kids first.  Opal just said, "Nope!" and walked away.  Jacob declared he was moving out.  And guess who the two that are the most doting on this new little one?  Yep.  Those are the two!