Tavish was born on December 30, 2000, at Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal, on avery snowy day during what felt like a record winter storm. He arrived 11 days past his due date after a long and difficult labour that lasted more than 30 hours. Because of the prolonged labour, Tavish was born with a large caput on his head and remained in the hospital for five days after birth. Even through those early challenges, Tavish brought so much joy into our lives from the very beginning. His first...

In one of my earliest memories of life as Jesse's mom, I am sitting alone in a tiny room at Sick Kid's Hospital in Toronto, a nervous new foster parent trying to process the unfathomable: that the tiny person I'd already come to think of as 'my' child would probably not survive his first year; that if he did survive he would never walk, never talk, never feed himself. Brutal predictions from a well-meaning doctor and a social worker determined to offer a way out. You do not have to do this....

Rebecca is sunshine and perseverance.   Born almost three weeks overdue to 26 hours of induced hard labour, I watched as she turned blue, and bluer, and darker still. Not breathing. No crying. Now purple. Still not breathing.  Doctor and nurse take her to a side table, their backs now to me and her Mom.  Can’t see her, can’t hear her. Still not breathing.  No crying.  Eternity. They rush Rebecca out of the room just as my wife asks me what’s wrong, where is she? Where’s our baby?  While...