The Story of The Start. The Beginning of Human Growing

Before I begin talking about our future, I want to help people understand who we are.

I am Bryan Michael Hamel, born October 14th 1982 on the second floor of Saint Vincent’s Hospital in Worcester, Massachusetts. I have a sister jessica, and am lucky enough to have 4 parents. I usually only care about Boston Red Sox baseball or Liberal Politics. My father hates one of those two things, it ain’t baseball.

My wife is Jenna Lee Price Hamel, born June 22nd, 1984 at Mount Sinai in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She has a brother Sean and a sister Jamie. She has currently has 3 parents, but we are sure this number will grow. A proud Canadian and sometimes proud to be an American as well.

We married on October 25th, 2008 in Maitland, FL. The story of how we met, would require another blog all together, but let’s just say it involved a magazine, the internet, the ocean, compassion for other humans, a lot of suave lines on my part, and a group of her friends that threatened our life. Upon marriage, we intended on taking it:

After living in Saint Augustine, Florida in a old apartment living over a polish/brazlian woman with bi-polar tendancies, I received new orders from the U.S. Navy to go overseas to Rota, Spain (our current home)

Then……it started out with a cold and “stomach ache.” My wife Jenna and I had just gotten back from a week in Paris, France in the 40 degree weather and the nearly freezing snow. This was a huge shock to our bodies, due to the fact when we stepped onto the plane in Spain where we live, it was 79 degrees and sunny outside.

The “stomach ache” and cold last for 3 weeks past the return from the trip. Jenna had been throwing up in the morning, could not get comfortable when sleeping, could not handle the smell of garlic or olive oil.  I thought something else was going on. After asking Jenna several times if I should get a pregnancy test, she said no, “it is just a stomach virus, it is going around, I should be fine in a couple days.” The next day on the way home from work, I purchased 2 pregnancy tests and a case of beer as a chaser.

Together, we gazed at the box for about 2 hours, realizing that if that test was positive and we were having a child, our lives would change forever. In the past year and 7 months since being married, we have made some big changes, we moved into our first house together, then moved to Spain, thousands of miles away from our families and friends.  I read the instructions thoroughly for the test, recited them to Jenna, she did everything she was supposed to do. We waited 90 seconds, looking with courage and with determination not to blink, as if the lines will only show for a moment and then disappear. Looking, looking, sweating, looking; Nothing happens. The first test was a dud, manufacturer error, so we motioned for the second test. Again reading the directions and reciting them to Jenna, she again mustered up patience for the second test.

Then there was no sound. Our two dogs and I stood in the hallway waiting for Jenna to open the door, but there was nothing. A moment later, the glossy white door creaked open, a ghostly pale look on Jenna’s face. “Read the directions again.” I read them again, looking over the black and white diagrams for the white and blue reality of the test. I grabbed the stick that was sitting on the sink. We just looked at each other, and hugged. On Tuesday April 20, 2010, our lives changed forever. We were going to be parents.

So I begin writing today, Jenna is 19 weeks and 4 days pregnant, we are anxiously awaiting to find out what Our Littlest is going to be. These writings serve a two fold objective:

1. Log our life before the baby, the resolutions to anxiety and joy.

2. To provide our friends, family, and strangers updates on our lives. As of late, we have not been so good with contacting everyone, this is because we have in our own way, been preparing ourselves and optimizing on the time we have together as semi-babyless parents. Here is our attempt to get better.

Germany v.s. Spain World Cup Game, week 16