Great Expectations

My son Andrew's latest Facebook post.

It was his way of announcing that his wife Rachel is pregnant. The envelope contained a invitation to his best friend's wedding. Andrew labeled the picture - "Thanks Luke and Megan for inviting our WHOLE family.

Facebook comments flew fast and furious. 90 comments so far. Facebook makes revealing juicy tidbits super easy. My first five pregnancies were pre-Internet days so news traveled a bit slower.

I'm so relieved this is out in the open. It was not an easy secret to keep. Andrew called a week before Christmas and said, "Hello Grandma Vik."

Andrew loves to joke and I didn't want to get my hopes up so I asked what he meant.

Turns out he wasn't joking. Lord willing, next July Keith and I will be grandparents. My grandmother biological clock has been ticking. I tried not to make any "hinting for grandchildren comments" around Andrew and Rachel because that would be annoying and I don't like to deliberately annoy people. (Just ask my husband who is trying to sleep while I blog in bed. If the light (dimmed of course) doesn't bug him, the pecking movements from my typing will.)

We were sworn to secrecy for a few weeks. I flunked secret keeping the very next day. It was the best news ever and I told two close friends and asked them not to tell anyone. We live six hours away from Andrew. What harm could it do?

The next day, I mentioned to another friend. "If you were to guess my secret, would you keep it a secret? I can't tell you, but if you guess, I'll say if you're right or wrong." My daughters had a fit so I didn't tell anyone after that. I only told three people. Keith told six. Normally we're better secret keepers but this news didn't want to stay bottled up.

My daughters are thrilled. They love babies. This poor child will be the first grandchild on both sides AND will have six aunts.

Lots of smiles at our house over this news with a few happy dances thrown in.

"Grandma Vik." I like the sound of that.

A lot.