What Would Have Been 40 Weeks

On January 19, my due date, Perry & I did a celebratory Releasing of The Balloons. You might be wondering why we chose to do such an odd thing... of course, there is a story behind it!

At my first baby shower, which was on October 30, 2011, my Mom put a helium balloon at the mailbox. After the shower, I took it home with me and it has been tied to Gabriel's highchair in the corner of our dining room ever since. Perry & I were surprised that even after a few weeks, it had not yet started to look deflated. Thanksgiving passed (almost 4 weeks after my shower) with no change to the balloon. Christmas passed (8 weeks since my shower) but still the balloon was tight and not hovering any lower like most helium balloons I've ever seen do!

Once January was here, our excitement about Gabe's arrival grew and we read into every little thing looked for any indication that he might be on his way. Perry made a comment once that maybe one day we will wake up to find the balloon hovering lower & starting to lose air - and that would be the day Gabriel was born!!

It didn't happen exactly like that, but close. When we came home from the hospital with our newborn son, sure enough, The Balloon {as we referred to it} was floating lower!!! After almost 11 weeks!

 

Perry came up with the cute idea to release all of the balloons outside on my due date.

We looked for the best spot in our yard to avoid the balloons getting stuck in one of our many pine trees. I waited for the wind to die off and let go!

 At this moment, we both are saying "Oh no!!" as the balloons headed towards a tree...

But more wind came in and blew them to the left, just missing the branch. I actually cheered (jumped up & down with my arms up- I was so excited I forgot about how sore I was!)

We watched them until we couldn't see them anymore. It was a special, silly moment that I'll never forget.