Four sons, ages 18, 17, 14, and 12. They are all in immense source of pride for me, and on occaision, they are quite perplexing. They can go from the Four Musketeers to three boys short of the Seven Deadly Sins in the blink of an eye, but, of course, I wouldn't trade the world for any one of them.
I think back to the weeks just before and after Maria and I married. I was in the middle of the rush to get every detail planned and coordinated with my wife-to-be, and had constant reminders all around me just how costly getting married can be. We were having the Traditional Wedding... In a Church, at Mass, four Bridesmaids/Matrons and Ushers, Seminarians/former Seminarians providing the music (ex-classmates), White Rolls Royce Limosene, 325+ Guests at the reception, Live Band, Open Bar, Sit-down NY Strip Dinner, the list went on and on. I, being ever witty, was fond of declaring that we were going to have all boys, because we could never afford to pay for a wedding like our own!
Sure enough, when we started having children, we had a son, and then another, and then a third. I was beginning to wonder if there was a pattern developing. During the fourth pregnancy, Maria started to get sick. When she was in the seventh month, her body started to hoard fluids, so we finally went in to see her OB/GYN. He planned to deliver the baby early so that they could concentrate on treating Maria. He decided to do an Ultrasound. During the middle of the exam, the Tech left the exam room, and a couple of minutes later, returned with a Radiologist. They had found a tumor, the size of a grapefruit, on one of our baby's kidneys. Suddenly, we were back in our car, driving is stunned silence, to Kaiser's Hospital in Oakland, where they had a Level Three NICU. During the Ceasarian, I was told that I now had a daughter. After a day and a half, we were back in the car, driving to UCSF, where our daughter, Ana Julia, was being treated for Stage Four Neuroblastoma. In all, she fought for 18 days, struggling to live, but everytime we dug up another little bit of hope, we were brought back to reality with what ended up being the worst possible news.
All too soon, I was regretting my boast about fathering all boys. Be careful what you wish for...
We ended up having one more child, a boy, of course!
