Making New Friends

On Saturday our family had an amazing outing to Chicago, getting to meet to other wonderful families that each have a little girl that also has hydrocephalus. We first "met" these families through the internet. When I first learned of Norah's diagnosis of hydrocephalus I found the Fetal Hydrocephalus website that has a list of blogs kept by families that have children living with hydrocephalus. I read everyone of the blogs and stories listed looking for hope, and I found it. One of those blogs was The Beautiful Cayman Cindy, whose mother Kristen has an amazing talent for writing, photography and giving hope to someone like me.



All three moms holding their girls for snack time

 I continue to belong to a couple of websites with message boards for families and people with hydrocephalus as well as check in the the fetal hydrocephalus website. Shortly after Norah had turned one I "met" Claire's parents who had just learned that their baby was diagnosed with hydrocephalus. It brought back all the raw emotions I felt when we had just learned of Norah's diagnosis. I wanted them to know I had been where they were and give them the same hope I had looked for while I was pregnant. They also began keeping an wonderful blog called Our Journey with Fetal Hydrocephalus.

This weekend we were privileged to get to spend the day with both of these families, and meet them in real life. It was a surreal feeling to be sitting next to the people that you have seen pictures of and written back and forth to but had never really met.

We spent time talking and playing in Millennium Park getting to know each other and share stories. I really enjoyed meeting both of these families and wished the day could have lasted longer. Now I'm looking forward to hopefully getting together again in the future and also meeting some of these other families who I've met through the Internet in person.