My Son Colin

I wish I had the wherewithal to write something better at the moment, considering this is the day ... but I don't.  So here's a quote from my Wikipedia user page instead, minutely updated:

... my wife is an OTC carrier, a rare X chromosome linked genetic disorder. With our first child, we had an amnio done and received our genetic screening results back from Yale that said she (we already knew we were having a girl) was not a carrier. Natasha is now eight years old and a little princess.
With our second, we received word back that he was in fact a carrier -- he had the same markers as my wife, and as a result would almost certainly die within three days of birth.
We had already both decided that we would carry the pregnancy to term and enjoy the life we were given for whatever time we had, no matter the result. The results gave us time to come to terms with what would happen that December (right before Christmas, 2003). He (Colin Isaac Babcock) was born at Mt. Sinai hospital in Toronto, Ontario which has excellent facilities and where we'd had all of our pre-screening work done.
The doctors were incredible and very kind and compassionate. They were all inspired by our decision to have the baby and enjoy our time with him and allow him to enjoy his time with us. I said at the funeral for him that "he had a better life than most; he met his entire family, was held and hugged and loved for his entire albeit short life and never had to suffer the loss of friends or family the way we all will. He didn't know his life should have been longer and didn't suffer any more than any other dying person. We all eventually die, and someone eventually mourns our loss. At least he had an incredible three days, and we all got to enjoy him for that time."

This is a hard time of year for us.  Its a hard time of year to go through pain, with everyone expecting joy.  I do still miss Colin.