I know, I should be updating you with good news as well, so yeah…sorry. Wolf has been doing well, still growing, still not breaking any bones. We haven’t been going to many doctor appointments lately because there just hasn’t been a reason. And we thank God every day for that.
But we did get back on Monday from a four-day trip to Portland, Oregon, where we attended our first OI Foundation National Conference. You can check out the OI Foundation through the link on the right of the page if you’d like. The OIF puts on this conference every other year. It is a gathering for people with OI and their supporters. There are fun social events and great speakers who address important aspects of living with OI.
We had originally thought that we wouldn’t go; since Wyatt was so young, he wouldn’t really benefit from being there and it would be a long trek up with our two other young boys. But given that the event was in Portland and we have some friends up in that area from our college days (go Ducks!), we figured we’d give it a shot. So we packed up the van, strapped down the children, picked up my sister, Jen, and her husband Cory (they decided to join us), and went on our way – 1,000 miles from Anaheim, California to Portland, Oregon. I’ll give you the story via running diary.
Wednesday, July 7th
2:00 PM: We leave the house, headed for Jen and Cory’s place to pick them up. We’ve got all the kids, clothes for five days, snacks for the road, and Mapquest printouts for everywhere we need to go. Yes, I am the last person in the country who doesn’t have a GPS either in his car or on his phone. Heck, we don’t even have a texting plan. I’m kind of proud of this, even if it infuriates all of our friends and family.
2:15 PM: Having picked up Jen and Cory, we hit the highway. Amazingly, the same freeway (Interstate 5) that passes within a few miles of our house also passes within a couple miles of the hotel where we’ll be staying.
2:17 PM: Our resident two-year-old, Micah, states for the first time that “he wants to go home.” This would not be the last time.
2:20 PM: See 2:17 PM.
3:45 PM: I curse for the first time (this trip) at a driver of below average intelligence who refuses to acknowledge my presence by vacating his current position clogging up the fast lane. I shake my head in derision as I pass on the right. Yeah, that’ll teach him!
4:30 PM: We stop for our first gas fill-up. The boys, who have been good so far, get out to stretch their legs. They manage to cajole their Uncle Cory into buying them colorful spiky rubber balls. These will be used to annoy various other passengers throughout our journey. I’m sure this was the designer’s intent. 
6:45 PM: Micah drops his Mr. Potato Head for the 796th time on the afternoon and whines inconsolably until someone picks it up and returns it to his lap, so he can drop it again. 6:46 PM: I remind myself how much more expensive plane tickets were.
8:00 PM: We arrive in the Bay Area where we will be staying the night. We stayed with a friend’s mom who lives in Danville. The boys had fun running around and playing with her two dogs. She cooked us a great dinner and put us all up for the night. Thanks, Connie!
Thursday, July 8th
8:00 AM: We get back on the road. It’s a long, 10 – 11 hour journey the rest of the way to Portland. We stop at McDonald’s for the first of what seems like 20 times on the trip to grab a quick breakfast.
8:10 AM: Julia offers up as a public service announcement: “Do not ever get the breakfast burritos from McDonald’s.” There you go folks. Come for news about Wyatt AND learn useful information about fast food.
10:00 AM: Speaking of Wyatt, the kid has been great. I think he may have cried twice the entire drive, and then only briefly. It’s not often you ask a four-month old to be a role model, but I found myself hoping that Micah would act more like his little brother.
12:30 PM: McDonald’s again to allow the boys to get some energy out at the play place they have there. I’m pretty sure McNuggets are allowed on my diet.
2:00 PM: We finally hit Oregon! Of course this means I have to slow down from the steady 83 MPH I was doing to under 75. Silly Oregon speed limit.
6:45 PM: We’re here! We check into the Red Lion Hotel next to the Portland Convention Center. Ben and Micah celebrate by dumping their toys all over the floor and jumping on the beds. Just like home! Wyatt seems very glad to be out of his carseat for a bit. 7:30 PM: We meet a college friend, Ben (we’ll call him Big Ben, so as not to confuse him with our son), for dinner at the Barley Mill Pub. Forget the diet. Two pitchers of excellent McMenamin’s microbrew, two baskets of Cajun-seasoned tater tots, and a steak wrap later, I am one satisfied guy. Little Ben gets his first taste of Oregon culture as he notices the random, colorful, eclectic decorations adorning the walls. He spends much of dinner staring at a rather psychedelic mural on the ceiling. Ah, Oregon. How I missed you.
9:00 PM: Done with dinner, we walk outside into the stifling 90 degree heat. In a strange twist, it’s actually 20 degrees hotter in Portland than it was in Southern California when we left.
10:00 PM: Bedtime. Big day tomorrow.
Friday, July 9th
7:15 AM: We walk from our hotel to the light rail stop that will take us to the downtown Hilton, where the conference is being held. The boys enjoy the train ride, which is free within the downtown area, and I enjoy not having to find (and pay for) parking in the city. If anyone in the Orange County/Los Angeles Transportation Department is reading this, please take notes.
8:00 AM: We scarf down a continental breakfast at the Hilton. How did the word “continental” get attached to a breakfast consisting of bagels, yogurt, and various fruits? How many different continents are actually represented there? Unless they shipped the cantaloupe in from Russia, I’m thinking just one.
8:30 AM: We drop Ben and Micah off at the kid’s daycare center and go to attend the opening session with Wolf along in the stroller. There are a lot of things going through my head at this point. The main thing I notice is the people. There are, of course, many people in wheelchairs, including lots of children. Others have walkers or canes. Even those who don’t need that kind of assistance are usually well below average in height. It took me until just now to realize that prior to that morning, I don’t think I’d ever met someone else who had OI, at least not that I knew about at the time. We saw another infant there who had a severe form of OI; he was only about half the size of Wyatt, despite being two months older.
For the first time, I felt something akin to guilt. Here we were, new to this whole OI thing, with our relatively normal looking, only-one-broken-bone-so-far baby. We were surrounded by people who had very difficult health issues, and parents like us who were afraid to even touch their children for fear of breaking them. I put on a self-imposed label as an outsider, not necessarily because I felt that we weren’t supposed to be there, but that it was almost like bragging by showing off our healthy boy. I was worried that others would consider us not part of the group, or that they would resent the relative ease of caring for Wolf to this point.
I cannot say this strongly enough – those fears were absolutely unfounded. Even though we were outsiders in the sense that we didn’t really know anybody there, all the people we interacted with treated us wonderfully. They were genuinely happy that Wyatt was doing so well, and gave us lots of encouragement. This didn’t stop me from feeling those slight pangs of guilt every now and again, but I think those were originating from my desire that ALL of the people who dealt with OI could have it as well as we did. Almost without fail, the community there was upbeat, helpful, and very welcoming.
Obviously I’m not finished, but this took me longer to write then I expected. Part II will be up by Monday morning. Thanks again for continuing to pray for us and encourage us! A large part of how easy this has been is attributable to the great support we’re getting from everyone. Stay tuned!
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