I'm starting this blog..

Though I'm not sure who will or will not ever read this blog, the other day I felt "inspired," I guess you could say, to start a blog about Lucia and our journey with her.  It has been quite a journey so far, and for those that know very little about our Lulu, she is a sweet little (seriously, she's petite for her age - she likes to watch her figure ;) ) baby girl that was diagnosed with Trisomy 18 just 24 hours after she was born back in July.  Trisomy 18 is a pretty rare genetic condition where an extra piece of genetic material is found on the 18th chromosome.  It's not hereditary, but just one of those things that happens "randomly."  I say that because I don't really believe it's coincidence, but that the Lord chose us for her.  If you read anything about it (it's also called Edward's Syndrome), it will tell you that most children with this diagnosis don't make it to birth and the ones that do, very very rarely make it past their first year.  So Lucia is a little miracle -- maybe a BIG miracle actually, since I think all children are miracles.  Though we've had a few rough patches these past several weeks, she really has been doing incredibly well through the prayers of MANY friends, family, acquaintances, even strangers.

Back to the whole idea of this blog.  It almost goes against my nature since I am a pretty private person, but I have a few good reasons as to why I should.  The first is to keep everyone informed about how we are all doing, most importantly, how Lucia is doing.  Many people from all walks of our lives, our family members everywhere (immediate and distant), our friends all over the world, past coworkers, and many others frequently ask about Lucia.  I see this blog as a good way to communicate about her, and also a fast way to send out our requests for prayer in cases of emergency.  I've also felt that people are afraid to ask about her sometimes..in their sweetness and sensitivity, they don't want to make me feel uncomfortable in talking about her (which I never do by the way, I love talking about Lulu).  But just in case you fall into this category, you can read all about her right here.

Selfishly, this blog is a way for me, her mom, to have an "outlet" --maybe to vent or even to share something joyful, as much as I would want to, to a perfect stranger (because God knows who could end up reading this).    

Lastly, deep down inside, I would hope that maybe I could say something helpful to somebody out there..so perhaps this is my way to connect with you whoever you are.  :) 

What I will try very hard to do is not sound like a great writer or make things sound poetic or pretty, because I see that as a temptation with blogs.  I was an OK english student...a really good English student when I tried REALLY hard.  I don't want to try hard, I just want to be me.

I think my next blog will be about the pregnancy and our last few months with Lucia.  Thank you for reading.