I love my Friends

Jessie was visiting this week, and it was quite delightful to have her. Her first morning at our house, we left early for our midwife appointment, and as we pulled back into the driveway, James turned to me excitedly and said: "Let's tell her right now, okay?"
"Sure!" I said. So we came inside and there she was on the couch, playing Wii Mario (because, really, what else would one be doing at 9:30 in the morning), and I said: "Hey, we had an appointment."
"With a midwife!" James added very proudly.
Her face quickly broke into joyfulness: "Are you pregnant?" We nodded and smiled, she jumped off the couch with squeals and hugs, and the rest of the day was punctuated with those same exclamation point noises and shrieks, along with things like: "OMG you are going to be a Mommy!" "THERE'S A BABY INSIDE YOU!", etc.

Later that night, Jessie and I met up with Katie, and went to her house to hang out. They had bought beer and I had bought food, and was on an eating binge like no other. Katie asked me if I wanted a beer, and I said: "No thanks," and then a few minutes later: "Guess what?"
"What?"
"I'm pregnant."
"OMG seriously? Ahhh! I am so happy for you!!" We collapsed into almost little-girlish giggles, the three of us, and they couldn't stop talking about it--calling me Momma, Jessie gathering me in her arms like a baby for a picture of "Her Holding Adrienne and the Baby," them making fun of me for my eating binge--saying I was eating for two ("Yeah, but one of us is only the size of a mouse.").

A while later I went home to collect James so he could go out to dinner with us, and we arrived at Willimantic Brewery, to gather with Jessie, Katie, Chris Henegan, and later to be joined by Mariclare. As we settled and got our drinks, I did the "Guess what?" game to Mariclare as well:
"I'm pregnant." At first she thought I was kidding, and as the reality sank in she became more and more joyful and shrieking--and it soon went around the whole table--the joy.
And Mariclare looked at James and I and said: "You guys are going to be parents!"
And apparently this was too much for Katie--she collapsed into nearly hysterical sobbing for a second as we all looked over in astonishment. I thought she had been poisoned by her food at first, asking: "Are you okay, oh my God!?"
But when she was able to compose herself a bit, she said it was just seeing the two of us together like that, James' proud grin, knowing we would be parents. The happiness miracle was just too much for her.
James could handle all these girl hormones since he was the glowing father, and Chris just rolled with it, leaning back in his chair, relaxed and smiling.
Mariclare said that she felt like she was pregnant, too--that this wasn't just changing our lives, it was changing all our lives.
"We are ALL pregnant," Jessie said. And in a sense it was true--this is our first baby, among my friends--and it will be loved so deeply. We are all pregnant.

The moral of this story--I love my friends. My protective secret curtain is being pulled back SO joyfully that I couldn't have asked for anything better.