Home Town couple Ben Napier and Erin Napier are going to be parents!

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The HGTV stars announced they are expecting their first child together in a Monday, October 16 Instagram post that revealed Ben and Erin had "a secret to tell."

Erin's post included a link, which then led fans to a heartfelt story about Erin's pregnancy. The message also included their baby's gender and name.

"She's a girl and we will name her after my grandmother," Erin wrote.

"My prayer for Helen is that she will be brave and kind. I pray that she will not be bullied the way I was, and that she will be a protector of the ones who are. I pray that she will learn that from her father, the protector who loves the people in his life so well."

Erin learned she was pregnant on May 13, when she took a test because she was feeling inexplicably tired and her body parts were heavy.

"It confirmed what I thought, in tiny pink vertical lines. I ran crying, falling onto Ben who was sound asleep. I couldn't think of anything to say. I just held out the test to him, shaking and crying... Through half-open eyes, the reality started to wake him up," Erin recalled.

"He wrapped his huge, heavy arms around me and held me so close and said, 'Everything is going to be great.' And we cried. Ben felt nothing but joy. I was surprised by the overwhelming relief I felt. The hardest part for me was done -- the decision had been made for me. I would be a mother."

Erin continued, "It was like pushing a car up a hill all this time, my anxiety about when, when, when I would finally be brave enough. All of a sudden, completely by accident, I was watching the car coast away from me as it tipped over the top of this hill, a dead weight lifted."

About an hour after hearing the news on Mother's Day 2017, Ben began to sketch his plans for building the baby's crib, and Erin called their closest loved ones.

"Becoming a mother was my greatest, and most hated fear. It had followed me since I saw the photos illustrating childbirth in my daddy's medical books at the tender age of 6. I didn't want to be afraid of it. I wanted to be like the other women in my life who never considered pregnancy something to be feared," Erin shared.

In Spring 2016, Erin apparently prayed to God that she would feel a desire to become a mother that was stronger than her fear, if not biologically, then by adoption. She later decided to tell Ben that she was ready to try.

"He picked me up and toted me through the park, kissing my forehead, my cheeks, my lips. He told me, 'Whether we do or we don't, I'll be happy as long as I've got you.' It was a secret between us from then on. That I might like to be a two-headed flower, as Ben put it," Erin wrote.

"We've kept it a secret because it felt too close and too important to share... I am now almost 7 months pregnant, and it has been thankfully a healthy and easy pregnancy. The long hours of filming have been hard on my very tired body each day, and in the first trimester there were headaches daily but never morning sickness. I thanked God for it, and still do."

Erin concluded her announcement by thanking her husband for making her a mother.

"Thank you for your heart and your love that's big enough to carry Helen and I both, and for holding my hand every step of the way," she gushed.

And then on Tuesday, October 17, Erin shared with HGTV viewers on Instagram that Season 2 of the couple's show, Home Town, will premiere on January 8, 2018.

Home Town, which features the pair fixing up old homes and making their Mississippi hometown more livable and welcoming, debuted in March 2017.
About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski

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