Saturday evening (the Saturday after the Pediatric Cardiologist appointment, same Saturday as telling the parents) I sent a mass text to my siblings that said

"Hi everyone, Jason and I need to call a family meeting for tomorrow at 6. We are sorry for the late notice but it couldn't be helped. Your spouses/partners are also invited but we would ask that you plan for your little ones accordingly as we are asking for undivided attention. Please let us know as soon as possible if you are or are not able to attend. Thank you. I love you all."

Seriously can't imagine what I would have thought if I got this same text from one of my siblings. Unfortunately for me and one of my brothers we were going through some tough times so I wasn't sure he would come and I didn't know how to put in my text the urgency behind this family meeting without spilling the beans but I wanted all of my siblings there. I really didn't want to tell people over the phone or even through text about our baby's congenital heart defect. I'm so thankful all of my siblings came. Not because I mind having to tell the story over and over again but because it was important to them to support me. Simple as that. 

They all arrived within minutes of each other, along with my parents, and so Jason and I began again to tell the story. We explained, as best we could, HLHS. We explained the options. We went through the procedures. We cried. We laughed. We answered their questions. Some questions really helped us because they were things we didn't know and we were able to find answers. Their reactions were the same as everyone else. Speechless. 

After they left we started getting text messages from my brother's wife (the wife of the same brother I had tough times with). She was telling us about a Christian group her and my brother really enjoy and how at a concert he talked about his son being born with a heart defect and he wrote a song about it and his feelings. As she was searching for the song to send me she found an article about this guy and his son and it turns out his son also has HLHS. She sent me the link and the lyrics really do tell the story of how I feel about my precious son. I am so grateful we as a family can get through hard times and come together for the good of something bigger than all of us. As I said in a previous post, this isn't just happening to Jason and I. This is happening to our entire family. This affects us all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50ygAc2qP5A

Telling Jason's sister was proving to be a little more difficult. His sister is an international mogul ;) Seriously! She does a lot of traveling with her job and she was in India at the time. The time difference between us and England is 5 hours. The time difference between us and India is 9! So as we were going to bed she was waking up and vice versa. Finally I just sent her a Facebook message asking when we could talk. She replied back and we set up a time to skype. The skype session was a little funny because the way her ipad was set up we really only caught her eyes and the top of her head, like it cut her off just above the nose, but her eyes were all we needed. Jason started telling her and he once again broke down. Something really interesting about my husband is he is one tough cookie. But when it comes to his family, especially the women in his family, he isn't so hard. His mom, sister, grandmothers and now daughter all have that effect on him. It's really sweet to see. So, as he's telling his sister he started to break down and that made me cry! I rubbed his back and continued to tell his sister the news. Any guess on what she said? She wasn't exactly speechless but all she could muster was S**T! And she kept repeating it. Not in a vulgar kind of way but in that, "I don't really know what else to say" kind of way. You know, Speechless!! Seems to be a common theme. We talked a little longer answering her questions, explaining the options and procedures and, as it was late for her, said our goodbyes.

As with all of our family we have allowed for processing time. This isn't something you can hear, process immediately and then know what to do. Everyone copes differently. Some of our family and friends we hear from everyday. Some we haven't heard from since they learned the news. I'm not offended in any way by the ones we haven't heard from. What do you say to me or Jason? It's like Saturday Night Live and 9/11 when Lorne Michaels asks if it's ok to be funny again. People want to treat us differently because we are different now. But I want to remind all of family and friends ~ just because we are looking at life from a different angle doesn't mean we are different people all together. Yes, this has changed us. But we are still the Clarksons. {maybe that's the *real* reason some people are avoiding us ;)}