Long overdue update

Well it's been over 5 years since my last post here, so time for an update.  This not an easy website to come back and read for me.  The 4 months I spent writing things down here as a way to just get the word out to all our family and friends who wanted to know what was going on were the hardest months of my life.  Looking back I don't even know how I handled the day to day visits to the NICU.  The doctors were fantastic, but the sheer reality of what we were facing is still hard to digest.

I think the act of actually writing things down here helped me out immensely.  It forced me to sort the days's facts out and explain what I was hearing to others.  That process helped me keep focused on the facts and the hope, and not get bogged down in the overwhelming negative despair that surrounded the entire ordeal.   It started as the most efficient way to get the word out, but I had no idea what a following we would get here, and how much the comments and support helped us out.  Everyone who read this blog and commented, called or visited was part of our strength that we passed on to Dillon and Madeline, so in fact.. all of you are responsible for their health today.

If anyone had told us in October of 2007 that Dillon and Madeline would be living in Costa Rica, surfing, ziplining, swimming like fish and learning Spanish, it would have sounded like a dimwitted attempt to give us some hope.  I could not have predicted a better outcome to such a hellish beginning to their lives.

Just yesterday, Dillon was stung by a stingray while boogie boarding at the beach (2 hours of bawling) , then later that day he shook it off, went biking and  landed a jump badly, scraping up his hip and his elbow with roadrash.  By bedtime that day he was on his skateboard trying to perfect a kick 180 he is learning.  It made me think about this blog and how his life started.  I don't think we would be as calm at dealing with these bumps and bruises, or as willing to let him get back out there again and attempt to kill himself in the pursuit of fun, if we had not been through the worst with him already in 2007.  There's not much more medically you can throw at a parent after you tell them their kids will not survive, and if they do, they will be disabled in some significant capacity.

As for Madeleine, she is diving to the bottom of the pool headfirst, better at Spanish than I am, and will eat just about any weird food you put in front of her (Yes, Brussels sprouts and beets are weird).  As for her personality, if I was not married to Abby I would call her the most outspoken person in my life.

So things turned out in the end.  Reading this blog again, I felt it needed an epilogue of sorts, and I can't think of a better one than a video we made a few weeks ago of Dillon and Madeleine in surf lessons here in Costa Rica.  The fact that they are here today, living this life, still sort of boggles my mind.  So here they are.. my perfect, perfectly healthy twins.

Love.. Dad.