Rough Patch

18

Tyler Joseph

I woke up today feeling weird. It was my 30th birthday. I was feeling slightly depressed because 30 seems so old to me but then I I got happy thinking that I've lived on this earth for 30 more years than I thought I would. I didn't think I would ever make it to 30 and here I am. I go down stairs to see Jenna sitting in her living room chair reading. The table was set and all my favorite breakfast foods were set at the table. 

"Happy birthday!" Jenna yells and comes over to give me a hug.

"Thank you! All this food looks great!" I say. 

"Thank you very much. I had a very good helper." Ellie comes running around the corner holding her doll and jumps into my arms. I pick her up and kiss her on the forehead.

"Thank you Ellie! It looks like you did a great job!" I compliment.

"I think I did a really really good job!" Ellie smiles.

"Well, lets try it out." I set Ellie down and we all go to sit at the table to eat. 

"So, I think after we eat we should do gifts." Jenna suggests.

"Gifts? You didn't need to get me any gifts!" I say.

"I know. But Ellie wanted to give you one and I have one too."

"Alright. If you say so." 

////

We finish eating and we all help out and do the dishes as a family. We had Christmas music playing and we were all having a great time. 30 isn't so bad so far. 

We finish the dishes and go into the living room. I sit down on the couch and Ellie sits on the floor in front of me. Jenna went to grab the first gift off of the fire place mantel.

"This gift is from Ellie." Jenna explains. Ellie looked super excited as I grabbed the gift from Jenna. I unwrap it and inside I see I pair of brand new Airpods. 

"Oh my goodness! This is crazy!" I say in shock. 

"Do you like it? It's for when you are in your studio!" Ellie chimes in.

"I love them! Thank you so much!" Ellie comes and gives me a hug. She climbs off of me and goes and sits on the floor again with her doll.

"Ok. Here's the gift from me." Jenna breathes. She gives me a big bag. I take out the tissue paper and everything inside the bag is wrapped in wrapping paper. I take out the first gift and it was a super soft blanket. 

"Wow! This is great!" I say. I thought it was kind of strange that she got me that but it was a nice gesture. I took out the next gift and it was a basketball jersey that said "Team Dad" on the front and on the back it had a number 2. 

"This is nice!" I say. I do love basketball so this was really nice. Then there was one final gift. It was small and thin. I open it up and I was confused. I saw an ultrasound. I look to the top of the photo and see that the date was recently. I look to see the name and see Jenna's name. 

"What? What is this?" I ask. 

"You're going to be a dad to two kids at the end of may or beginning of June!" Jenna says. I cover my mouth and I feel my eyes fill up with tears. I look at the photo again. 

"Oh my.....how many months are you?" I ask.

"About 3." Jenna smiles. She had tears in her eyes too. I stand up and go to give her a hug.

"I can't believe it. This is so great and so unexpected."

"Trust me, I was surprised too." Jenna laughs through her happy tears. Ellie stands up and joins our hug.

"Ellie! You're going to be a big sister!" I say excitedly. 

"I know! I'm going to be a great sister." Ellie replied.

"I know you will!"

////

After taking some time to process what Jenna just told me, I took a shower and got ready for the rest of my birthday. We were going to go to my parents house and Jenna's parents were going to come over too. We decided we would tell our parents about our unexpected gift when we got to their house. 

We got Ellie all ready to go and we all hopped into the car and drove off to my parents place. We were greeted by my sister Maddy. She gave me a hug and wished me a happy birthday. We walked inside together and said hi to everyone. We talked for a while and my parents made some dinner which was great. Then we all sat down so I could open gifts from my family and Jenna's parents as well. 

I opened up a lot of stuff for which I was very grateful for. I got a new baseball hat, a few tee shirts and jeans, some music related art work for my studio and some other fun stuff. After opening everything, Jenna and I decided to tell everyone the news. 

"So, I have something for all of you as well." I announce. Everyone looked confused. I took out the envelopes I had in my sweatshirt pocket. Jenna and I made everyone a copy of the ultrasound. I gave my parents an envelope and I gave Jenna's parents an envelope. They opened it at the same time and the looks on their face were priceless. I couldn't stop smiling. Our parents were all crying which was making me feel especially emotional. Jenna also started crying and my siblings were all emotional. I gave them all a hug and we all were a crying mess. I was just so overly happy and overwhelmed. This ended up being the best birthday I had ever had. I couldn't wait until May.