The Tech Block

CHRISTMAS EVE! It's a little surreal to think that just one year ago we were entering another Christmas with complete uncertainty when we would be able to start celebrating Christmas with a child of our own.  Yet, here we are, headed into the very next one with the most perfect child we could have ever dreamed of having: A few things have changed since the last update.  Nothing dramatic but we've nailed down an important date so that's the main reason for this update. February 5th That's it. THE day.  Abriana is scheduled to have her facial repair surgery that day and her parents couldn't possibly be experiencing a greater level of mixed emotions about it.  Sure, we all agree 100% that this is an essential surgery for her.  However, no matter how many times we tell ourselves that we've selected the absolute best possible neurosurgeon and the best possible plastic surgeon for the job and no matter how many times we tell ourselves she NEEDS this

Alright so I figured I'd finally carve out some time for a broader update for everyone since the scope of those following Abriana's story is far greater then I can possibly fathom (as indicated previously). First off I give you one of my favorite pictures.  This is Abriana holding THE dental floss.  For those who find this incredibly strange I encourage you to head back to this post where I explain the dental floss :-) The Birth Week So the last entry I had was my thank you note to everyone just a few days before we went to the hospital for our c-section.  We were scheduled for a Friday morning C-section.  So Thursday night we decided to spoil ourselves a little and head over to St. Pete and get a room in a really nice hotel overlooking the water and have a relaxing evening as our childless era came to an end.  This was an amazing idea.  The hotel was perfect, the rooftop restaurant was fantastic, the food was insane, the view was gorgeous, and the company matched

Overwhelmed.  In all the right ways. So, as I sit here, just 4 days away from getting to meet our Abriana Mireille I realized that once Friday hits things are most likely going to launch into warp speed and I may not get this golden opportunity to be a little reflective for the people that have gotten us to this point. Last night I was cruising around Facebook and saw a chain of posts.  A post of my blog from someone on my friends list, followed by a domino effect of posts of at least 3 other people not on my friends list sharing our story with their friends list and all of a sudden it hit me like a sack of bricks.  The depth of people out there thinking about us, or praying for us is so far beyond what I could have ever imagined and we'll probably never know just how many people have rallied in support for all we've been through and have yet to encounter ahead.  It's truly amazing, and my only regret is that there is not a proper string of words in any language capab

In Faith All Things Are Possible ------------------------------------ This is part 5 of my blog series on the road to having our child Introduction:  Right Here Part 1 can be found:  Right Here Part 2 can be found:  Right Here Part 3 can be found:  Right Here Part 4 can be found:  Right Here Part 5:  *YOU ARE HERE* ------------------------------------- So there's a major part to our story that I've not mentioned up until this point.  It wasn't for a lack of importance that it wasn't mentioned but rather a careful choice.  While our religious belief is a vitally important piece of our puzzle in navigating this situation I did not want our experiences this far to be written off by anyone who may not believe the same things we do.  However, I'd also be remiss if I did not mention the strength we've received through faith in this ordeal.  So the intention of this post is to highlight some of the key low points of this journey and how we allowed ourselve

Frontal Encephalocele ------------------------------------ This is part 4 of my blog series on the road to having our child Introduction:  Right Here Part 1 can be found:  Right Here Part 2 can be found:  Right Here Part 3 can be found:  Right Here Part 4: *YOU ARE HERE* Part 5 can be found:  Right Here ------------------------------------- So following the doctors advice I got in the car and rushed to the doctors office as fast as I safely could.  To be perfectly honest I don't recall parts of the trip because his words were just banging echo's through my mind "brain matter leaking from her head."  "It certainly is rather strange."  I had no time for Google research and in hindsight I am quite glad I did not have that time because there are some key distinctions I had yet to learn to frame our case versus a lot of the cases out there.  I was also still in shock that I had decided not to go with Margaret to the appointment, so for the 45 minutes i

Pregnancy - and more... ------------------------------------ This is part 3 of my blog series on the road to having our child Introduction:  Right Here Part 1 can be found:  Right Here Part 2 can be found:  Right Here Part 3:  *YOU ARE HERE* Part 4 can be found:  Right Here Part 5 can be found:  Right Here ------------------------------------- Pregnant!     So, as was previously mentioned in the last post our plan for having a child was that once we exhausted all chances of IUI's working we had our first major fork in the road.  Did we want to move on to the adoption process or go down the IVF road.  Also, as previously stated, we knew we wanted to adopt at some point.  So adopting now could be two birds with one stone.  I don't care how pro-adoption you are, adopting your first child incurs very strange feelings.  I know I personally wrestled a lot with myself.  Thoughts like "does this mean I am turning my back on chances of ever having a child of my ow

Infertility - The Reaction ------------------------------------ This is part 2 of my blog series on the road to having our child Introduction: Right Here Part 1 can be found: Right Here Part 2:  *YOU ARE HERE* Part 3 can be found:  Right Here Part 4 can be found:  Right Here Part 5 can be found:  Right Here -------------------------------------     This entry is going to require a pretty strong warning.  This is going to be all about the emotional warfare that will be encountered for anyone living with infertility.  This post will contain the raw, unfiltered feelings felt.  Therefore, examples will be given of things said or done that you very well may have done yourself in talking to us or someone struggling with infertility.  You simply must understand that for actions or things said to make it to the "example" list means you're not the only one so I urge that you do not feel bad or offended in my bringing it up.  Understand that even if it hurt us we realize

Infertility ------------------------------------ This is part 1 of my blog series on the road to having our child The introduction post that came first can be found: Right Here Part 1: *YOU ARE HERE* Part 2 can be found:  Right Here Part 3 can be found:  Right Here Part 4 can be found:  Right Here Part 5 can be found:  Right Here -------------------------------------     What a scary word.  What an unexpected turn of events for anyone to encounter.  The last thing you consider when deciding to have a child.  The process of creating a mini-you is always painted as so simple, and for many lucky people it can be.  However, for a much larger number of people than you'd expect *insert some made up surprising statistic here* it is a very difficult task.     Back up a second.  I should forewarn, of all the posts in this series this one may be the most "scatter brained" of them all as this stage of our journey included so many emotional attacks from so many d

Dental Floss: Overview ------------------------ As new posts are made this space will become a table of contents linking to each one Introduction: *YOU ARE HERE* Part 1:   Click Here Part 2: Click Here Part 3:  Click Here Part 4:  Click Here Part 5:  Right Here ------------------------     "Where am I and why does this guy care so much about tools for proper oral hygiene?" Valid question.  So here's the deal; roughly 3.5 years ago my wife and I decided what many married couples come to decide, time to have a kid.  Like many couples the dreams began and, well, the fun started.  It always seemed like such a simple process, A+B = BABY.  Easy math, but then life struck.     Infertility struck us and I had always envisioned one day writing a blog post of a male perspective to the struggles and challenges faced.  However, I decided to wait to post anything until AFTER the baby was born, just to make sure I had my story straight from start to finish.  Th