falling down is also a gift

Three and half years after being introduced to the world of fodding/blurtying/blogging/etc, I've only just started reading the blogs of people I don't know.* I suppose I could count people like Min and Selange under this category since I got to know them through their blogs and then on the WD, but I don't. I'm talking about people completely separate from the WD (expect that I was probably directed to their site by a WD friend).

One of the blogs under this category that I've recently discovered is falling down is also a gift. It belongs to the mother of a child who was born with Biliary Atresia, a liver disease that affects newborns. The child, Annika, who is five years old now, has undergone several serious operations, including two liver transplants, and while recovering from a shunt operation before Christmas, has just been put on the donor list for a third transplant.

I've known about this blog for some time thanks to Annika (bettie-Annika), but I've never really taken the time to read it. But an entry caught my attention at the end of last week, and since then I've been reading through the archives from November to catch up on the most recent bout of surgery. The writing is very good. Informative, funny, thoughtful and very often, extremely moving. I've only been reading for a couple of days, but already I feel like I know the family and I care about what happens to them. Not only that, but I've been reading the blogs of people Moreena (the mum) has linked to, parents of other critically ill children. I would encourage everyone to at least go and check it out. I've spent a lot of the weekend crying over some of the things I've read, but I feel better for it. I feel good knowing that I know Annika and her family, even if it is anonymously through the internet.

* I count people I know through the WD but have never met as people I know.