Our Family

I (with the support of my husband) am writing this blog to share the story of our family. I have never intended to have a blog, in fact, I am normally a pretty private person. During the last two weeks, our lives have drastically changed. We no longer consider ourselves a "normal" family. To explain that, let me introduce our family.

Scott and I met in highschool and against a lot of odds, we have managed to grow up together. This coming January we will celebrate 9 years of marriage. This past May was 15 years of being together. We have seen each other through a lot of good times and we have witnessed each others tough times. Scott is devoted to his family and friends. He is a paramedic at a local emergency room and works alot of odd hours! Even with a crazy work schedule, he still manages to find time for his family. Scott is passionate about sports, to the point that he is not ashamed to proudly be a fan of the Cleveland Indians and the Cleveland Browns!

Just over 5 years ago, we moved into our house and obtained the next member of our family - Lucy. Yes, she is a dog, but she is very much our family. She used to have her crazy moments, but she has calmed down quite a bit (for which I am quite grateful)!

3 and 1/2 years ago, we were blessed with the birth of our son, Sean. The best way that I can describe Sean is that he is full of life. He can be shy in new situations, but he loves his family and friends. There is no good way to describe his smile and laughter. We are pretty certain he is destined to be a class clown. He loves to be tickled and if you really get him going with laughter, he snorts (a lot). I wish I had better words to describe, because this doesn't seem to do him justice.

March of this year, Scott and I were excited to find out that we were expecting! Our due date is Nov. 28, 2010. Sean was even thrilled with the idea of a baby, though we are quite sure, he did not understand the actual concept of a baby at the house. On July 2nd, we went for a 19 week ultrasound and found out that Sean would be having a little brother. Scott and I returned to work and I began to excitedly show off the sonogram pictures. Less than 2 hours later, I received a devastating phone call. My OB called to tell me that there were concerns from the sonogram and it appeared that our son had thanatophoric dysplagia. All I remember was hearing the word "fatal" and that choices would need to be made. From that moment, our family ceased being "normal".

The next week, we had an appointment with a perinatologist and a genetic counselor. After an extensive ultrasound, the diagnosis given by our OB was confirmed. The basic explanation is that our son has a skeletal disorder where his long bones (arms and legs) are significantly shorter than they should be at this point in development. The main concern though is that his chest cavity is underdeveloped and his ribs are short, so his lungs will not be able to develop.

In the midst of everything, we realized that our son needed a name and an identity. His name is Ryan James. I wish I had a good story for the name, but it just came to us. After we had already selected the name, I looked up the meaning for Ryan and it is "little king" - perfect.

Please forgive me for not sharing more of our story here, my heart can only take sharing so much at one time. I will put updates as regular as possible to share our little king and his story, which is ours.