November Prayer Update: Fill & Download for Free

Fortunately, no one I know offline uses Quora, so I feel free to talk about this.My wife and I had been trying for nearly 11 months when she first got pregnant in November 2019. She was close to her menstruation, so she took a pregnancy test as had been her habit. I was sitting on the couch watching TV. She came out holding the test and said, “Does that look like a line to you?” There was a faint line. We were ecstatic! I ran out immediately to get a better quality test, since she was just using the ones from the dollar store because we had been trying so long.The second test confirmed it. She was pregnant. We nicknamed our unborn “Tortellini.” I have no idea why. My wife made a doctor’s appointment, and we were all smiles and joy — for nine days. On Sunday, Dec. 22, I woke up after a nightmare that my wife had a miscarriage. I don’t believe in dreams or omens, but this time it was real. As we got dressed, deciding to go look at cribs, my wife went to use the restroom. She came out crying because there was quite a bit of blood. We called the doctor, and he said to come in the next day. We both went to the appointment, and it was confirmed.We lost our child.People grieve in different ways. I wrote my daughter — I believe Tortellini was a girl — a letter. I put it with the positive pregnancy tests, and they are all in a ziplock bag in my sock drawer. I cried. I cried a lot. So did my wife. She cried on my shoulder. I cried in my workshop. I was trying to be strong for her.As her body healed, she went on a buying spree for children’s books. We went to Goodwill quite a bit, and she looked for children’s books. I considered it cathartic for her and helped find books that hadn’t been written in or damaged. We now have 67 children’s books sitting on a bookshelf in the room we had planned to be the nursery.We decided to try again when her doctor said it was safe. We had tried for 11 months the first time, so I expected another several months of trying. But my wife brought out a pregnancy test she had left over and told me she was pregnant. I looked up from my book. All I said was “So soon?” I honestly had mixed emotions. I was scared that it wasn’t going to last, that another miscarriage was bound to happen. I didn’t touch my wife’s stomach at all whereas with the first one, I touched her belly every day. I had a very hard time trying to get excited about this pregnancy. I guess I was still grieving for Tortellini.But hope does not cause miscarriages. Excitement does not always bring disappointment or heartbreak. It is ok to be happy and excited. It doesn’t mean we didn’t love the first child. It just means we do love the second.According to my wife’s calculations, we’re now at the seven week mark. We’ve made it further than we did with Tortellini, and this child we have nicknamed Linguini. Our first doctor’s appointment is Thursday, and we remain ever hopeful. I’ve got the feeling this one is a boy, but we obviously won’t know for quite a few more weeks. My wife has floated the idea of twins, and she hopes for a boy and girl together.Singleton or twins, boy or girl — I just want a healthy pregnancy and birth. Keep us in your prayers.Update March 21, 2020: First, I want to thank everyone for the positive comments. Miscarriages are common, and I see that many of you have had that kind of loss as well. My heart goes out to everyone who has faced it.Second, we’ve had our first doctor’s appointment, and our little pasta noodle is in the right place with a strong heartbeat. While I was hoping for a Linguini and Fettuccine, we’re having a singleton. So far, everything is great, and our week count was only off by a couple days. We reached week 8 yesterday.Update May 11, 2020: We did a blood test to check for any chromosome abnormalities since my wife and I are both older than 35. Everything was perfectly clean, so we are going to have a healthy baby.I also learned something — blood tests can check for an X or Y chromosome, so we can know the sex of the baby without an ultrasound. We’re having a boy! We’re going to name him William Alexander. And if you are a Buffy the Vampire Slayer aficionado, you can probably guess what we’re going to call him. If you’re not a fan…sorry. Got to have some secrets.Final Update, Oct. 23, 2020: We were happy to welcome our healthy son into the world at 12:42 pm EST.

Sitting in church on a Sunday morning I noticed my then fiancé leaning slightly… almost a slump. I thought maybe he was just really tired. A week later he finally went to the doctor because he was struggling to do simple math (he’s brilliant and math was easy for him) and he was listening to Spanish music - we don’t speak or understand Spanish. A tumor in his brain was discovered rather quickly. Glioblastoma stage 4. He was given six to nine weeks to live. Our wedding was planned for less than three weeks away. We were told to cancel - and did - for a couple of days.Hope is the only reason people choose to live… to keep going even when life is hard. It didn’t take long to decide to get married anyway. One week later he had surgery - completely awake the whole time. We were told that the kind of cancer he had usually returns in six months or less.It’s a rare opportunity to live with a daily reminder of the value of life. We began living each day aware that tomorrow isn’t promised and doing the things we had always wanted to do… loving people and showing it.That was almost nine months ago. Today he is cancer-free. We don’t ignore little things anymore. And we thank God every day for answered prayers. That night in the hospital when he was diagnosed I asked God for just one more day with him. I’ve enjoyed more than 275!Note: I’ve added updates but it appears they quite often are not seen so I’m adding them here.UPDATE JULY 6, 2019It boggles my mind how many people have read and responded. Thank you for your kind words. An update on my husband… we are now 333 days since he was diagnosed and there is still no sign of cancer. Typically this cancer returns in the first six months post-surgery. We recognize the gift of life we are enjoying and thank God daily.I won’t pretend it’s been easy - it most certainly has not. But definitely worth it.Definitely.UPDATE DECEMBER 25, 2019Today is Christmas. The day before Thanksgiving, just one day shy of a month ago, Andy met Jesus face to face. I’m sure it was more of a bear hug as Andy was swallowed up into life everlasting absent of pain and finally able to think clearly again.On November 8th at his regular MRI Appointment which he had every six weeks, a new tumor was discovered. It was very aggressive and inoperable.it would be natural to question why he was taken from me but I choose to focus on why I was so fortunate to share any time with him at all. He was brilliant and he loved me completely. I am a better person having known him.if I had only one wish in life it would be that others would know and experience love like we shared.

Note: Moving forward I’ll be posting updates to my list here.Upcoming hackathons:1) IBM Hack Night - Watson Internet of ThingsCentral Computers (3777 Stevens Creek Boulevard, Santa Clara, CA 95051)Tue, November 8, 2016 from 6:00 PM – 9:00 PMhttps://www.eventbrite.com/e/ibm-hack-night-watson-internet-of-things-tickets-285397922872) Watson Developer ConferenceInnovation Hangar (3601 Lyon St, San Francisco, CA 94123)Wednesday, November 9, 2016 from 10:30 AM - 11:00 PMhttp://www.ibm.com/watson/developer-conference/3) Redis Modules Hack USAAWS Popup Loft (925 Market St, San Francisco, CA 94103)Sunday, October 16, 2016 at 11:00 PM - Saturday, November 12, 2016 at 12:00 PMhttps://www.hackerearth.com/sprints/redislabs-hackathon-usa/4) 3rd Annual Congressional App Challenge: CA-15 HackathonWorkday Headquarters (6230 Stoneridge Mall Road, Pleasanton, CA 94588)Saturday, November 12, 2016, 9:00 AM – Sunday, November 13, 2016, 3:00 PMhttps://www.eventbrite.com/e/3rd-annual-congressional-app-challenge-ca-15-hackathon-tickets-282037331255) Developer CampStartup LaunchPad (301 Howard Street, San Francisco, CA 94105)Friday, November 18, 2016, 5:00 PM – Sunday, November 20, 2016, 6:00 PMhttps://www.eventbrite.com/e/developer-camp-tickets-286162289116) Metis / Invisible Institute HackathonMetis (633 Folsom Street, 6th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94107)Saturday, November 19, 2016 from 9:30 AM – 4:30 PMhttps://www.eventbrite.com/e/metis-invisible-institute-hackathon-tickets-290370485947) DanceHackDay 2016CounterPulse (80 Turk Street, San Francisco, CA 94102)Saturday, December 10, 2016 from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PMhttp://www.dancehack.orghttps://www.eventbrite.com/e/dancehackday-2016-registration-291288732448) HackCity: Blockchain HackathonDraper University (44 East 3rd Avenue, San Mateo, CA 94401)Friday, January 13, 2017, 6:00 PM – Sunday, January 15, 2017, 1:00 PMhttps://www.eventbrite.com/e/hackcity-blockchain-hackathon-tickets-285087273719) eny HackathonGalvanize (44 Tehama St, San Francisco, CA 94105)Saturday, January 21 from 9:00 AM - 5:30 PMhttps://eny.devpost.com/10) Mod the Future Hackathon- San FrancsicoGalvanize (44 Tehama St, San Francisco, CA 94105)Saturday, January 21, 2017, 9:00 AM – Sunday, January 22, 2017, 6:00 PMhttps://www.eventbrite.com/e/mod-the-future-hackathon-san-francsico-tickets-2727260609911) DeveloperWeek 2017 HackathonPier 27 (The Embarcadero, San Francisco, CA)Saturday, February 11, 2017 at 10:30 AM - Sunday, February 12, 2017 at 4:30 PMhttp://www.developerweek.com/hackathon/https://www.eventbrite.com/e/developerweek-2017-hackathon-tickets-2837506157312) #WomenHack - The All-Women Hackathon San FranciscoSaturday, March 18, 2017 from 9:00 AM – 11:30 PMDevbootcamp (633 Folsom Street, San Francisco, CA 94107)https://www.eventbrite.com/e/womenhack-the-all-women-hackathon-san-francisco-tickets-27670276542Past hackathons:1) Hack Against ViolenceDev Bootcamp San Francisco (633 Folsom St, 6th Floor, San Francisco, CA)Friday, September 16, 2016, 6:30 PM - Sunday, September 18, 2016, 5:00 PMhttps://www.eventbrite.com/e/hack-against-violence-tickets-270965354672) SM Hacks - San Mateo's first high school hackathonOpera MediaWorks (1875 S Grant St #800, San Mateo, CA 94402)Saturday, September 17, 2016 at 10:00 AM - Sunday, September 18, 2016 at 2:00 PMhttp://www.smhacks.com3) AT&T IoT Hackathon - Bay Area1446 Market St, San Francisco, CA 94102Friday, September 23, 2016 at 6:00 PM - Saturday, September 24, 2016 at 9:00 PMhttps://www.eventbrite.com/e/att-iot-hackathon-bay-area-tickets-274182427024) Airport of the Future - HackathonBlock 71 San Francisco (164 South Park, San Francisco, CA)Friday, September 23, 2016 at 6:00 PM - Sunday, September 25, 2016 at 5:00 PMhttps://www.eventbrite.com/e/airport-of-the-future-hackathon-tickets-271722539435) 2016 Bay Area Code for the Kingdom HackathonPalo Alto | Mixbook (409 Sherman Ave, Palo Alto, CA 94306)San Francisco | FiveStars (340 Bryant St, San Francisco, CA 94107)Fremont | Convergence House of Prayer (200 Hammond Ave, Fremont, CA 94539)Friday, September 23, 2016 at 7:00 PM - Sunday, September 25, 2016 at 6:00 PMhttp://www.eventbrite.com/e/2016-bay-area-code-for-the-kingdom-hackathon-tickets-259610491976) Hack Homelessness HackathonThe Tech Museum of Innovation (201 South Market Street, San Jose, CA)Saturday, September 24, 2016 at 8:00 AM - Sunday, September 25, 2016 at 12:00 PMhttps://www.eventbrite.com/e/hack-homelessness-hackathon-tickets-268131679077) Hackathon - "Hack For Safe Campus"PayPal (2211 N 1st Street, San Jose, CA)Saturday, October 8, 2016 from 9:00 AM – 10:00 PMhttps://www.eventbrite.com/e/hackathon-hack-for-safe-campus-tickets-274535803988) The Small Business Tech HackathonSan Jose Convention Center (150 W. San Carlos Street, San Jose, CA)Saturday, October 22, 2016 at 10:00 AM - Sunday, October 23, 2016 at 6:00 PMhttps://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-small-business-tech-hackathon-tickets-267293040689) Food Hackathon + Forum: KIDS HEALTHswissnex San Francisco (Pier 17, San Francisco, CA 94111)Friday, October 28, 2016 at 5:00 PM - Sunday, October 30, 2016 at 9:00 PMhttps://www.eventbrite.com/e/food-hackathon-forum-kids-health-tickets-2826694920610) AT&T VR/AR Hackathon - San Francisco1446 Market St, San Francisco, CA 94103Friday, November 4, 2016 at 6:00 PM - Sunday, November 6, 2016 at 6:00 PMhttps://www.eventbrite.com/e/att-vrar-hackathon-san-francisco-tickets-2856715914211) Emojicon 2016 HackathonBespoke at Westfield Mall (845 Market St, San Francisco, CA 94103)Friday, November 4, 2016 at 6:00 PM - Sunday, November 6, 2016 at 6:00 PMhttp://2016.emojicon.co/hack12) health++ : Stanford's Inaugural Health HackathonStanford University - Li Ka Shing Center & Huang Engineering Center (Li Ka Shing Building, 291 Campus Drive, Palo Alto, CA 94305)Saturday, November 5, 2016 - Sunday, November 6, 2016http://healthplusplus.stanford.edu13) Hack Reality: VR Hackathon with Samsung Accelerator645 Clyde Avenue, Mountain View, CASaturday, November 5, 2016 at 9:00 AM - Sunday, November 6, 2016 at 5:00 PMhttps://hackreality.splashthat.com/14) AWS + Intel Hardware Hackathon - SF EditionAWS Popup Loft (925 Market St, San Francisco, CA 94103)Saturday, November 5, 2016 at 10:00 AM - Sunday, November 6, 2016 at 9:00 PMhttps://www.hackster.io/hackathons/aws-intel-hardware-hackathon/SF/infohttp://www.eventbrite.com/e/aws-intel-hardware-hackathon-tickets-28441518347