Becoming a father:

Welcome back everyone; it has been way too long without writing anything substantive!
My goal for today is to share some personal exciting news with all of you, I truly hope my story is relatable and the slightest bit inspiring.
Two and a half years ago, one of the top doctors in New York City brusquely explained to me that I would never be able to conceive children without several injections per week for a very long time. Yet, here I am, two months away from welcoming a handsome and intelligent boy into this crazy and mysterious world!
I really detest those situations during which people who are blind are falsely portrayed as heroes or as so “inspirational”. Therefore, I won’t bore you with the miraculous details of this happily overwhelming news, other than to emphatically state that every single needle into my stomach was absolutely worth it!
For those of you who are not acquainted with my brilliant beautiful wife and I, our personalities could be described as somewhat nerdy, thus a full library of parenting books has been rapidly consumed and all necessary baby products are already at hand! People in my circle constantly claim that I appear to be cool and confident. My brain thinks this appears to be mostly the truth, but a small portion fears that it is a fake exterior to defend from nervousness and anxiety. In any case, I am doing my best to prepare for this magical experience, and my background as a certified vision rehabilitation therapist is really becoming handy.

Four senses are more than enough:

I truly feel like there is nothing that a sighted parent could see about their child which I could not detect with my 4 senses. Allow me to break down something as simple as changing a diaper:
First of all, we all know for better or for worse that smell is the most important sense for realizing when it is time to change a diaper, if you understand my meaning. Next, my changing table is always ready for action, with all necessary supplies at hand and a diaper pail available to discard all of that… not fantastically smelling goodness. Finally, I have learned how to arrange the diaper correctly underneath the baby, how to utilize the correct cream/ointment, and ultimately how to secure the fresh diaper.
My nerdiness is a well-documented fact by this point, and becomes more and more apparent as the due date arrives. For instance, you might glimpse my wife or I going for a walk with an empty stroller…. Except for our little baby-sized doll inside of the stroller’s basinet. It is important to point out that we are pulling the stroller behind us, not pushing it, so that the cane is unimpeded to protect from upcoming obstacles. Of course, there are fewer things in life worse than pushing your stroller into an open cellar, manhole, or subway steps!
As parents who are blind, we have all heard the horror stories of children of blind parents being taken away due to uninformed, misguided, and medaling social workers at hospitals. I am taking precautions just to unequivocally ensure that this type of scenario does not play out in my family’s life. As I have emphatically stated for many years, education is the most important key to erase all of these negative misconceptions and stereotypes which haunt our community of people who are blind and visually impaired. Therefore, I will meet with my hospital’s social worker before my wife goes into labor in order to commence a sort of brief education session.

The journey begins!

I am fully prepared to start this journey, and feel thankful to those who have supported me along the way. Whenever I take time out to write here, my hope is that this will transition into more of a dialogue than a written piece. Please feel free to say hello and share your thoughts below.