
Preparing for our trip to Pittsburgh was more emotional than anticipated. Not the routine gathering and packing of things, but sifting through medical reports to provide background on my son’s experience coming into this world. Early on I assembled a binder divided into sections – hospitals, early intervention clinics, along with a dozen others – for collecting the medical and therapy reports that would accumulate in time. Jasper is nearly two years old. His baby book remains incomplete, lines left blank for milestones he did not reach on time, empty squares where photos should be. Instead the priority is managing this medical book, rearranging, expanding, updating. Consulting the book is emotional. Gathering those early reports is particularly difficult. Remembering, reliving. Reading about my newborn son in cold medical jargon is a harsh reminder of how difficult our beginning was.