Damon Riley

I have always wanted to be a mother. The day that came true for me was one of the best days of my life. I was to the point in my beliefs that I wasn't going to be able to give my husband a child. We were going to adopt and were in talks of it. Then the day after Thanksgiving in 2011 I took two tests , both positive. We could not believe it! Come to find out , I was almost 8 weeks along! I turned my whole world around. I quit any and all caffeine , quit eating bad foods and stuck to the stuff that was good for me and that Damon would tolerate in my belly. I went through four months of morning sickness and lost 14 pounds. But my baby was still growing and still healthy. My husband was deployed for almost 6 months of my pregnancy so I would send him emails and pictures of Damon's progress. It was a difficult process without him but I had the support of my friends here at the base. I gave birth to a 10 pound 1.2 oz baby on July 23 2012 and he was 23 1/2 inches long. The miracle of our lives. he was sick though , a meconium baby and he was in the NICU for almost 2 weeks. That first night was heart wrenching. During labor and his delivery , I had never felt so close to God and never felt his presence so strong as I did then. I have never prayed so hard for anything in my life. Today , Damon is close to a year and a half old and growing like a weed. Noone else on earth except for his dad has seen the best and worst of me. Recently , Damon got diagnosed with fragile x. I knew he had it , I gave it to him. Fragile X is caused by a defect in a single gene. This gene, called FMR1, shuts down and fails to produce a protein vital for brain development. My x chromosome had over 200 repeats of this gene and that is the one he got from me. My husband is deployed again so I found out alone. I thought I was ok until they asked me if I was ok and I just lost it. But it did not change my love for that little boy. It showed me a new kind of love and understanding of him. I could not ask for a better little human to be a mommy to. He is incredible and happy and fun. He loves to learn and figure things out. My husband and I are very blessed to have such a wonderful little boy.