Before the Beginning.

This is how our story started, well before the journey with CF, before the madness of 5 kids, before the beginning. This part, I feel, is as important as the diagnosis. It helps me to place my Faith and understand that I was made to do this. Being a Mom to these babies was designed specifically for me. You may come to think so too.
Becoming the Mom of 3 kids by the age of 25, had me believing that my days of pregnancy were over. I had my doctor prescribe me the best birth control pills on the market and I became seemingly sterile for a year and 5 months. In August of 2002, however, I found my fertility had won over my body once more. May 23, 2003 was the day my fourth child was born and I was determined more than ever to end the every-second-year-pregnancy trend I was following. I went to an esteemed Ob/Gyn to have an indisputably permanent sterilization surgery. In early July 2003, I had my fallopian tubes "tied". Technically, they are closed off with plastic clips that crush closed much like the clip they place on the umbilical cord of a newborn only proportionately smaller. This solution worked, for a whole year. In November 2004, Life had found a(nother) way and I was blessed afresh with the glow of pregnancy.
This, my fifth Child, was a numerology miracle. There was a 0.05% chance of becoming pregnant after sterilization surgery with her ~ this would become the beginning of a logic defying streak. She was born on her due date, which statistically only happens in 13% of pregnancies. This beautiful little Miracle baby, would prove to beat the odds at every turn. On her third month of life, we received a phone call from our local Children's Hospital, telling us that she might have Cystic Fibrosis, a fatal genetic disease. That historic day, Nicole became the first Child in all of Canada to be diagnosed via newborn screening.
Two parents who each carry the defective gene responsible for Cystic Fibrosis, have a one in four chance of producing a Child who actually has Cystic Fibrosis. Nicole is my fifth Child, but the last of four, born to her Father. She is truly our one in four. Any time a doctor tells us that the chances of "x" happening to her are slim, we have to carefully consider every option because although the chances may be slim, Nicole is out to challenge all the odds!

Finding the Courage to Blog.

Hello, my name is Holly and I am an online socialite. I love social networking and I enjoy the time I spend with my online friends. I post many things online in the form of short, sweet status updates and tweets. Previously, I had not considered blogging about our daily life and the struggles we, as a family face, through our collective myriad of medical intricacies. Until now, that is.

I have just spent the last 7 days pouring over, crying about and wading through a heart wrenching Blog, written by the most amazing Mom ever. The story is absolutely tragic and only recommended if you have a full box of tissue on hand. It is not meant to entertain, only to inform and serve as a bittersweet record of a young boy who's life was taken much too suddenly. Her words describe, in painstaking detail, the Love surrounding her and her family and friends in the midst of a crisis no person should ever, ever have to experience. It is a story of Love.

This author has shown strength beyond average human capacity and, unbeknownst to her, has given me the courage to brave the world of Personal Blogs. Thank you Sarah for sharing the most courageous,(in the words of Sarah Jones, herself...) "amazing, excruciating, painful, relieving" last few hours of your Son's life with us. We shall be changed for the better, evermore.

Please take a moment for Conner and his family; Mom~Sarah, Dad~Brad and two wee Brothers, Hunter and Bradyn.

Breathe easy little Connerman and know you have had a profound effect on lives of many. You are so loved.

Sarah's Blog can be found here, http://www.notsobrightandshiny.blogspot.com/