Why should I talk about it?

I have NEVER blogged in my life.  I never thought I would be a blogger.  In fact, I have always been convinced that I would never have anything interesting enough to say in a blog.  And then my whole world was changed by a simple diagnosis.

Learning that your child is going to grow up with special needs is HARD.  The past few weeks I have struggled so much to accept this reality.  But at some point, I have to accept it and move on, and do everything I can to provide Dylan with the tools he needs to succeed despite his challenges.  But I've never raised a child with special needs before, and I had NO idea where to even begin.

So I started reading.  Thank God I live in an age where resources are available to me online.  I read medical journals & clinical studies about Microcephaly, and walked away more confused than when I started.  The technical nature of most of the information I came across was overwhelming.  Eventually I found a Yahoo group and later a Facebook page for parents raising children with Microcephaly.  Here I was able to read through old posts and see what other parents were dealing with.  But this still only gave me a little snapshot into their lives.  After each post I read, I found myself wanting to know the story of what they had come through to get them to this point.  Finally, I started searching for blogs.  These were written by people like me, who started the process of raising their precious children full of hope and dreams and were devastated by a diagnosis. Even though their stories are completely different than mine will be, it was so helpful for me to read real life accounts of families raising children with Microcephaly.  I sympathized with their heartache, but most importantly I was able to rejoice in their successes.  

I don't think I will ever be a blogger who updates every day with a new anecdote of my children's lives.  But I do hope that something I say will one day help a mom who has just had her world torn apart by a doctor's announcement that her baby was born with Microcephaly.  I know that my family will learn a ton of lessons through this journey; who am I to keep what I learn to myself?  I hope I can be honest.  I hope I can laugh and cry and share Dylan's struggles and triumphs.  I hope we can prove the doctors wrong.  I hope, if you read this, that you won't judge me as I go through this process.  I hope you can pray with us for miracles, whether they be huge or small.  And most of all, by telling our story, I hope that the world will grow to love Dylan as much as I already do!