“The Only Thing Predictable About Life is its Unpredictability”

Whoa…that title is deep. But the quote is very accurate. If you’re not familiar with it, it is actually from a Disney movie, “Ratatouille” spoken by the character Remy. If you’ve never seen that movie, I recommend it. For being a movie about a rat, it’s pretty good! Fun fact: Every Valentine’s Day Lauren and I watch “Ratatouille”. We continued this tradition this year, even though we were in the hospital!

I’m going to skip around a bit in our story, but I promise that eventually everything will be covered. Today I want to talk about one of the craziest days of my life, which as I look back at it now, I realize that it is also one of the greatest days of my life.

I traveled a lot for work back then. Sometimes I’d be on the road for a few days, sometimes I’ll be gone for months. This particular trip in December was a Sunday – Friday trip in one of my favorite cities, (because of the awesome people there!) Minneapolis. It was the annual “End of Season” meetings for my work group, which meant long days in conference rooms and fun nights at the Vodka Bar.

On Sunday morning before Lauren dropped me off at the airport, we decided to go to brunch at The Wine Dive in downtown WPB. You can’t go wrong with delicious food and bottomless mimosas before a flight! We met up with several friends of Lauren’s (and mine, as I adopted them as my friends too 🙂 ) and had a great time! I got dropped off at the airport, and headed off to Minnesota.

Lauren and I enjoying Sunday Funday!

Lauren, Lindsay, and I at Wine Dive

Monday morning started off like any other day at the corporate office. Scott, Britt, and I met up at the coffee shop for our much needed pick me up for the day and caught up on all the office gossip. After making the rounds to see people I hadn’t seen in awhile, we headed up to our first meeting. During this time, I knew Lauren had a doctor’s appointment to check up on some things that she was concerned about. I told Scott that I had to keep my phone on me, in case something was wrong and she needed someone to talk to. Little did I know what concern was coming!!!

Around 11AM I received a text from Lauren asking when would be a good time to call. I excused myself from the meeting, and told her she could call me right away. Of course I was fearing the worst…the news she gave me caught me completely off guard.

I wish I recorded exactly how it went down, but from my memory it went something like this:

Me: “Hey, how was the doctors?”
Lauren: “Well, they did the exam, and she decided that she wanted me to get an ultrasound to check for cysts, because that may have been what was causing my issues.”
M: “Okay, did you go?”
L: “Yes.”
M: “Did they find any cysts?”
L: “…”
M: “???”
L: “They found a baby.”
M: “Say what?”
L: “I’m pregnant.”

I was speechless. I think I had her repeat herself 3 or 4 times before it finally sank in. We talked for about 30 more minutes, before she had to hang up to go back for a followup appointment. From that moment on, my life would never be the same…and I wouldn’t change it for anything.

I had Lauren send me the ultrasound picture of the baby, soon to be known as “Fig”, and is now known as Evan. I instantly fell in love. A love that grows daily, for him, and for his mother.

As many of you know, Lauren is fighting a serious battle against cancer. She has been out of work since December, and I have been home taking care of her while she fights. If you have a chance, please visit our GoFundMe fundraiser (https://www.gofundme.com/knmv7f7q) and give it a share. The money raised will go to help pay our bills as we continue this fight. We thank you for all of the assistance, love, and prayers you have already given us. 

“Now I’ll be bold
As well as strong
And use my head alongside my heart”

“I Will Wait”-Mumford & Sons