Welcome.

This is the story of our daughter Emma. Her story begins with a rare birth defect called Gastroschisis. This space is dedicated to the days before her birth and the many that are sure to follow.

Monday, August 4th

I've read many books. When I lived in downtown Portland I would commute to work on the city bus. One of the highlights of my day was quiet time with a book on the way home. The soft thud of the wheels rolling over steel grates on a bridge. Rain drifting around in the night and vanishing into the body of the blackened Willamette river outside. The bus exhales at stops, breathes in more passengers, and continues on course. Sometimes I would stop at a coffee house. Coffee - black. I would unroll my paperback from my back pocket and continue to read. The authors were larger than life and their stories, heavy with wisdom, were a meal unto themselves. However, sometimes the most important words written are those less concealed by craft and cleverness.


My family drifts in between where we were and where we want to be. In this place, nothing has gone wrong with the birth of Emma and everything that is good is possible. Sometimes the place in between is really quite a place to be:

There is a place where the sidewalk ends
And before the street begins,
And there the grass grows soft and white,
And there the sun burns crimson bright,
And there the moon-bird rests from his flight
To cool in the peppermint wind.

Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black
And the dark street winds and bends.
Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow
We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And watch the chalk-white arrows go
To the place where the sidewalk ends.

Yes we'll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And we'll go where the chalk-white arrows go,
For the children, they mark, and the children, they know
The place where the sidewalk ends.

- Shel Silverstein, Where The Sidewalk Ends

14 days until the induction.

7:50 PM | |

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1 comments:

Anonymous said...

Jayden is wonderful now! He's almost 8 months old and he only weighs approx 13 pounds now, but we're striving so hard to get him where he's supposed to be! He sits up on the floor, doesn't quite crawl yet. He eats about 9 ounces every feeding, and never spits up. You would never know that he was sick for so long!

I'm sure Baby Emma will be there before you know it too! Its so hard the first couple of days especially for you, mom, because you don't get to hold your sweet baby & seeing them in that position just doesn't feel right. I was searching on youtube.com last night, and just happened to type in Gastroschisis. There are some amazing videos & it might give you an idea of everything. You might or might not want to watch them. Whatever happens, stay strong, for our babies need our strength and for us to fight for them more than we'll ever know. No baby deserves to go through any of this, but God does things for a reason.

If ya'll have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask!

August 5, 2008 at 4:08 PM  

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