The Phamily Blog

Hi everyone. I'm Nguyen, Gabby's dad and I felt it was my time to blog so you all can get a little feel for our whole entire family and not just the lies upon lies that Sheree spreads through this venomous blog (just kidding). Well let me start out by telling you a little about myself. I was born into a wonderful loving family and blessed with two of the best parents ever. I have two older brothers and an older sister who live nearby. I love them very much also. I grew up in a pretty normal Vietnamese household except my parents were exceptionally open minded compared to most of the older people in the culture. They never minded that most of my friends weren't Vietnamese and always encouraged me to do what made me happy. Well a few years ago I met the girl of my dreams and her name is Sheree. I remember thinking to myself after our first date that there is nobody out there more beautiful than this woman and I still think the same thing today. We dated like 3 days and we found out she was pregnant with our son Cameron. I always knew I wanted to marry her so it was very happy news to me. I always thought what could possibly look better than me. Well of course, me but half white. And that is what Cameron looks like, me but half white.
I have always been a realist my whole life. I'm a very very realistic person and I dont try control things that are out of my control. For example I'm not the guy who goes to a car dealership and leaves telling all my friends that I ripped off the dealership. Please people, a car dealership is not selling you a car if they're losing money on it. Or another example of me being a realist is I don't go into asian restaurants expecting good service because thats not what asian people do, they're good at cooking food and collecting money, not communicating. I have a pretty dry sense of humor that amuses some people, just not my wife. I am not a religious person at all but I don't consider myself an atheist either because I believe there is a God out there, just not the same one that people kill eachother over. So when we found out that Gabby was born with down syndrome, I didn't play the "God Card". I didn't say to myself God did this for a good reason because why would God want a child to be born with heart problems and learning disabilities. I just took it as something that happens to people randomly and I was this random person. Just like anyone else would have been, I was confused, scared, angry and ran through a whole roller coaster of emotions when we were told of the news. I just knew though that giving up was way too easy and my parents didn't raise no quitter. I can't wait to be a father to her and provide her with a wonderful life.

I think most people wouldn't want more kids with all the extra attention needed to take care of a down syndrome baby, but I'm already thinking about building a whole entire entourage of brothers and sisters to surround Gabby with so the first kid that makes fun of her will get laid out and carted off on a stretcher. Again, it's only been one week since she was born so we'll see how I follow through on this. Bye everyone, more on my life next time. Thank You for wasting your precious time reading my entry.

Mother's Day: I finally got my first real nights rest the night before and it was nice. Cameron and Nguyen went out before I got up and got Donuts and coffee :)

My mom came over to visit and so I could give her her Mother's Day gift (Rachael Ray Furi Knives, woohoo!) After Nguyen and Cam got back from Starbucks and the donut shop, they gave me my present... How spoiled am I? I have always wanted pearls and Nguyen took notice! He is the BEST!

Shortly after we got a call from the on call pediatrician to give us an "update." He went on and on for about twenty minutes about how Gabby showed signs of a "stressed" baby in the womb and that she was displaying pretty typical behaviors of that, etc... And then he dropped the bomb. "Oh and also, not to scare you but I hear she looks just like her dad and her brother...is that right?" To which I respond with, yeah she kinda does. And he says "okay good because we were looking and one of the things that came up was down syndrome because of the way her eyes looked." My heart just sank because just the day before as I was holding her, I had the very same thought. I quickly dismissed it though because she looked different the next time I held her and she continues to look different every time I see her.

So, he goes on about how she has the eyes of a person with down syndrome and also her ears are set a little low on her head but he measured them and they were within range of "normal." "The only other thing we found that could point to DS is that she has what is called a "Simian Crease" on her hand." (Most people have three creases on their palms. A simian crease is one crease that goes straight across and although they are very prominent in people with DS, you can also have them and NOT have DS.) So he continued to tell me they are ordering a blood test to get a chromosome analysis done to see what's up but the results would take about a week.

Getting off of the phone and relaying that message to Nguyen and my mom was pretty difficult but I remained hopeful and optimistic. I decided to do a google search and see what I could come up with. We found out that 13% of asians have the simian line and that was GREAT news to me. At that point, I felt like our chances of Gabby having DS were low and we were all going to be just fine.

Later, after cam woke up from his nap, we took a trip out to the hospital to see our princess. My mom and I were in the nursery and Nguyen was outside waiting for his turn with cam. The new on call pedi came over along with a social worker and said she wanted to talk to us. It sounded scary so I sent my mom to get Nguyen.

Immediately she pulls out a sheet she printed up with ALL of the characterisitcs she felt Gabby possessed that pointed her towards a diagnosis of down syndrome. She said she felt about 90% certain it WAS down syndrome. That was the most painful sentence I have ever had to listen to. Nguyen and I both cried right there in the nursery but they were very comforting and reassured us that there were plenty of awesome resources for us and everything was going to work out for us.

We went home and cried for the rest of the day. It was/is just so shocking. We went in waves of emotions...one minute feeling the weight of the world on our shoulders and the next feeling like this was the best thing that could have ever happened to us because she was going to bring our entire fanily closer and we would love like we never thought possible.

SO, it was a pretty rough mother's day but we got through it and we will continue to get through each day and hopefully, it will get easier and easier.