February 2004

Still without child, Mark and Jenny had given up most, but not all hope. They often had Missy's boys over to stay the night, but of course, it was not the same as having one of their own. Jenny became convinced it was impossible for them to conceive a child together. She mostly blamed it on Mark's constant marijuana usage, which causes low sperm counts. Jenny charted and researched all that she could to no avail in creating life, or so she thought. A week before Valentine's Day, Jenny became violently sick. She couldn't eat or drink anything without getting sick to her stomach. She screamed that she was going to die from food poisoning. On their way to Missy's for a movie night, Mark and Jenny stopped off at the grocery store for some popcorn. With Jenny still sick, they decided to go ahead and buy yet another pregnancy test, assuming it would be negative, but praying just once it would read positive. Missy and her husband Ronnie popped the popcorn, Mark put the movie in, and Jenny went to take her test. She bought some dill pickle flavor chips at the store and had yet to put them down since they walked out of the grocery store. Jenny placed the test on the kitchen table, and sat down with her chips to watch the movie. Mark stood up and eagerly awaited the test result. In some part of his mind, he somehow knew this test would be different. As Jenny munched on her chips, Mark said, "Honey, come here". "Why?" she asked. He urged her to get up and come to the table, maybe it was the hormones or her stubbornness, but she refused, she was comfortable and nothing was going to get her off that couch! "Honey, you're pregnant!" Mark belted out. A chip fell out of Jenny's mouth as she went into some form of shock. "What?!" Mark sat down next to his pregnant wife and just held her hand. Missy had to break the stunned silence and make fun of Jenny's choice in chip flavor! They both sat there with the same thought running through their minds, simply: "We're having a baby".