December 7th

December 7th has two meaningful distinctions to me.

The badge I have on my sidebar alludes to the first. Today is TTTS Awareness Day. As many of you know my youngest son was conceived along with a twin brother. We were very surprised when I went in to see my obstetrician suspecting I was pregnant, and discovered we were pregnant with twins after she did an ultrasound. I am grateful to my doctor for doing the initial ultrasound. If she had not done it we may never have known that there were twins until after the birth. She was concerned about a descrepancy in the sizes of the two babies and referred me to a perinatologist. At about 8 weeks gestation I was officially diagnosed with a rare disorder called twin-to-twin-transfusion syndrome, a disease that causes blood flow issues within the placenta. Due to TTTS, our smaller baby Tate passed away at 15 1/2 weeks. At the instant of Tate's death, the blood flow was interrupted between the two babies. This interruption caused Alex to be born with right hemiplegia, a form of cerebral palsy. Writing this brings up many painful memories wrought with guilt. Our family still misses our sweet little baby. He is mentioned often in prayers and in intimate moments. I have dozens of ultrasound pictures saved for Alex because I've read that separated twins often feel something missing in their lives. Gratitude is prevalent for the survival of Alex. I can't imagine life without him. So on this day if you could take a little time to say a prayer for a suffering family, donate a few dollars, or educate yourself on TTTS I would be eternally grateful.

December 7, 1941 also marks the day of the attack by the Japanese military on Pearl Harbor. Both of my grandfathers fought in the Pacific Theater during World War II and survived to have a large posterity. We cannot imagine the sacrifices they made- venturing into the unknown, seeing friends killed, leaving their sweethearts and families behind. I was reading an article the other day about a 91 year old (who is younger than my grandpa) WWII veteran and Congressional Medal of Honor recipient who is being threatened legal action by his Homeowner's Association for flying an American flag on a flagpole in his front yard. It made me sad to think that the HOA is so shortsighted that it is even a rule that you can't fly a flag on a flagpole and that this veteran has lived to see the day that the flag he fought for could be taken away. I think he's earned it. So even if you are not a "flag waver" this veteran should still be respected for what he gave and sacrificed to be here today to fly it.