As my wife, Eufrasia, keeps you all abreast of what is going on medically with Robert and our journey through these uncharted waters, I want to introduce myself and share my accounts of the day Robert Cruz Gomez entered our lives.
My name is Steven Gomez and I am Robbie's dad. I should say PROUD dad of Lil Rob. My son is an amazing blessing!
All dads dream of having their little boy. We dream of teaching them sports and playing, hiking, and running. We dream of being there for all of their "firsts". Their first Touchdown! Their first homerun! Their first girlfriend and giving advise. Graduating high school. Their first drivers license and teaching him how to drive, etc and I was no different.
Unbeknownst to us prior to his birth, even after routine ultrasounds, nothing showed up as an abnormality. We learned of Rob's condition at the time of his birth. The doctor took my son out of my wife's womb handed him over to a nurse who then place placed him on a table to clean him up. She lifted his right leg showing me his foot and said "did you see his leg?" I looked over at what slightly resembled a purple swollen foot that was way larger than it should have been for a new born. It had an extra digit and a couple toes were fused together. I was mortified to say the least. I wanted to cry, in that very instant my heart broke. I felt a pull in my chest and I didn't have time to process it. All I knew is that my wife was lying on the operating table just 5 feet behind me being glued back together while anxiously waiting to hold our baby for the first time. I knew that I had to tell her that our son was born with some sort of defect.
My lips quivered as I struggled to form the words. It took all my might to hold back the tears. As the room spun all around me and the shock of the reality of what I had just learned and those dreams of "firsts" shattered like a mirror hitting the concrete. I thought about how life is hard enough without a handicap and how cruel people can be.... (all of this happened in a few seconds time.)
I turned to my wife and did my best to communicate that baby Robbie was fine but that he had an abnormally formed foot. As the nurse placed Robbie onto my wife's chest, she could see how distraught I was but she simply caressed and cuddled him as they bonded skin to skin. just minutes after his born, can you believe that baby Robert Cruz Gomez did a push up on his mothers chest. No joke, our little new born, in his first minutes of having entering this world, he pulled himself up from my wife's chest and lifted his head for a good 2 seconds. He is "Normal" in every way. He continues to meet his milestones, not only does he meet them, he tends to reach them, blow right past them and on to the next. Robbie is a sharp little man. He figures things out in short order. He is definitely a hand full at times but with that being said, he is ALL BOY. Active and on-the-go, he has gotten his bumps and scraped like the best of them. Fearless, Intelligent, and Strong are 3 words that I would use to describe my son, my blessing.
Out having dinner, one night, with my buddy Billy we began talking about Robbie and he told me that Robbie is here to teach us all something about life. I could only nod my head and agree with him. I believe this to be true. My son will persevere and he will do so with elegance and grace.
My compadre Mark says my son is a BEAST. Again, I agree. He is a force to be reckoned with, he powers on through, I'm proud of that spirit he has. Thank you for taking the time to learn about my son Robbie and the RARE condition that he has. Please continue to follow us on our journey as we walk on the RARE side.