Wednesday, November 8th, 2006

"It was the stupidest thing I'd ever heard."

posted by lizzie    « No Comments »    tied to Uncategorized   

We finally got a chance to tell our friends on the Tuesday evening shift at the temple about our “great expectation” (I’m talking about the baby), and of course, they are all very excited for us and eager to find out if it is a boy or girl and all of that (even though they realize that it means I will be retiring from the temple in April sometime). Among all of the congratulations and questions, one of the sisters shared with us this interesting story, a direct quote from which provides the title of this post.

Sister E, as I will call her, told us about her oldest son and his wife. He was from Hawaii, she was from Samoa. The two of them moved to the Marshall Islands soon after they were married. When they made a trip back to Hawaii to visit one summer, the wife went shopping and bought some maternity clothes and baby things. She told her mother-in-law that some of the sisters in her ward were pregnant and she was getting a few things for them. Sister E thought this was very nice, but didn’t think too much of it. It wouldn’t be until almost a year had past that she would find out that the maternity clothes and baby things were, in fact, for her daughter-in-law and grandchild.

Yes, folks, that is right. The couple did not tell anyone that they were having a baby. They did not tell anyone when the baby was born in December. It was not until April, when they came back to Hawaii to visit with their five month old child, that any of their family and friends found out about the baby. Sister E said that when they stepped off the plane with the baby she was more concerned about her daughter who hadn’t come back from parking the car than she was about the infant her son was holding in his arms. Nobody believed he was their baby at first, but even after they were convinced, it took them a long time to warm up to him and really love him. Which is probably why she said, “It was the stupidest thing I’d ever heard.” The rest of the family needed to have that pregnancy time, that time of anticipation, to prepare themselves and to learn to love the baby, just like the parents probably did.

Aren’t you glad we didn’t think of that?

Hint: people who leave the first comment are cooler.

Leave a Comment