Day #5 of D-Blog Week: Awesomeness

Awesome things – Friday 5/13:In February the #dsma blog carnival challenged us to write about the most awesome thing we’d done DESPITE diabetes.  Today let’s put a twist on that topic and focus on the good things diabetes has brought us.  What awesome thing have you (or your child) done BECAUSE of diabetes?  After all, like my blog header says, life with diabetes isn’t all bad!

Where do I begin?  I think the most awesome thing diabetes has brought to our lives is the extended “family”.  Our family had the privilege of traveling to Chicago last summer where we got to meet many of the families who have experienced this little miracle of coming off of insulin.  After several years of feeling alone, I was desperate for more answers and connections when I was pregnant with Katie.  I had a sneaking suspicion we were traveling down the same road with her even before she was born, due to her dropping percentage of weight in-utero.  So I became proactive and finally looked up the doctors in Chicago.  I contacted them and they told me they had a registry for Neonatal Diabetes so they could connect the families as a support group.  I missed out on the London conference in July of that year (because, HELLO, I was 9 months pregnant!) but I was able to connect and talk to many of the moms through e-mail and Facebook.  When we finally met in Chicago, it was like attending a family reunion.  Most of us already knew each other and our respective stories and those we didn’t know, we quickly became close friends.  I hope we can repeat the experience someday in the future. We still keep in touch, some even by phone now (thanks Alissa and Angela ).  We continue to add new families to our little group and I am happy to say that I am an international traveler now (well, by internet anyway, LOL).  Hopefully, in the future, I can meet some more of my international friends in person.

Our family in Chicago, July 2010