Inspired by a Tomato

If you follow the Winter Olympics at all, no doubt you have heard of the "Flying Tomato," aka "Il Pomodore Volante." Shaun White is a 19 year old American snowboarder who won the gold medal in the Halfpipe competition yesterday. His whole family was there to watch him win, and they all sobbed in celebration.

What inspires me about Shaun White is not that he's turned his passion into a multimillion dollar income, but the fact that under his jacket he carries two scars on his chest. Shaun was born with Tetralogy of Fallot, a congenital heart defect that required two open heart surgeries during his first year of life. I was wondering if his parents were remembering that little baby, hooked up to monitors and IVs and respirators in a hospital, as they celebrated their son's victory yesterday.

I cannot begin to tell you how much strength it gives parents of young children with CHD to see an active, vibrant Olympian like Shaun White. This is the first year since Youngest was born that our family is not looking at a possible surgery. We are just beginning to taste ordinary. It gives us so much hope to see extraordinary.

So have a happy, hopeful Valentines and Congenital Heart Defect Awareness Day.