Community

The internet has changed our world. Yes, I know, not a huge revelation, huh? But really, when I think back 15 years ago when I graduated high school - the internet was hardly in existence then. I didn't start to explore it until college, and even during most of my college career, it was fairly limited and mostly text.

Then, slowly it started to change. In 1999, I met my husband on online. Boy, was that difficult to explain...then. Now, it's fairly common. We don't get the comments now, that we used to back then.

When my son had biliary atresia, I found a support group online. What started as a group to ask questions of - and glean some hope from - became friends. Good friends. People you go to the beach with and spend a weekend. People whose children have the same issues as yours.

And, it grew from there. Blogging is similar to that. Even if you don't have a blog yourself, you read blogs. And, I think that most of us tend to gravitate towards blogs that we have something in common with. I enjoy twin blogs - especially boy/girl twin blogs - and it's even better if the kids are close to mine in age.

So, when I started following a new blog written by a father who was expecting boy/girl twins - it was fun. To relive the excitement that we went through. To root them on, give some advice. His wife carried their twins to 37 weeks - as a preemie mom, this is the goldens standard. At 37 weeks, everything is supposed to be just fine. But, something horrible went wrong, and after only 11 days, their son passed away Saturday night.

I'm grieving for this family - maybe in part because I know how close we were to the same fate, and I remember those horrible emotions. Maybe in part because that's really just the way this whole internet thing has grown - that even though I may not have known these people, I knew them.

To Rob and his entire family, I am so sorry.