Author: Lauren

There have been a couple news stories circling around lately about parents suing for their child being born with cystic fibrosis. 1) A montana couple who didn’t plan to get pregnant is suing their health providers saying they would have aborted the fetus had they known their child was going to have CF. See the story here. Clearly, I think these parents are nuts and I feel so terribly for that poor baby. A baby is a blessing, and if you are suing because you would have killed it before it came to term, then I’m not sure what kind of parents this couple will be. Sure, CF is a scary and horrible diagnosis…. but it’s something you can learn to live with. And given the choice to DIE or have cf… I’d obviously choose cf. And then, there was a second story that is a little more complex than this one…. 2) A couple who underwent genetic testing of their embryo before implantation to ensure their child would not have CF is suing for malpractice because one of their twins was born with cystic fibrosis. The jury ruled in favor of the couple, awarding them $13 million for their expenses, life care for their daughter, and emotional distress. See the story here.  I felt compelled to write something because I’m not quite sure how I feel about this story....

I just finished reading The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. Without giving too much away, it’s a great read and I highly recommend reading it if you want to be inspired. One of the quotes that comes up throughout the book is “When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.” (fun fact: the word conspire comes from the latin routes con- and spirare- which mean “breathe together” and I happen to have SPIRA (breathe) tattooed on my wrist… hmm!) The book is about fulfilling your “personal legend” and makes strong references to paying attention to omens. While reading the book, I have a) become confused as to what exactly is my personal legend and b) started to notice signs and miracles that have really helped me to move towards my goals. One of my goals, of course, is to conquer cystic fibrosis by running lots and lots! This isn’t always easy, especially since now I am training for a half marathon. But this weekend, all the universe did, in fact, conspire in helping me achieve my goal. Realizing that the half marathon is fast approaching, I made it a goal to run 8 miles by July. So this week I set a goal to run 7 miles. I went out on my 7 mile run even though I hadn’t stuffed myself with enough carbs...