EPTI am also a part of another, very different but still very close-knit community of dragon boaters. For those of you that have not heard about dragon boat, it's a water paddling sport in which 20 paddlers, a drummer, and a steersman race in wooden longboats against other teams. It's really amazing, and if you haven't checked it out I definitely suggest you take a look and see if you're school/workplace has a dragon boat team. It's one of the fastest growing water sports in the world, which is a relation that I drew to the ESPORTS community.
I am writing this because a friend of mine and his wife, who met through dragon boat, had a baby recently. This child, Avy, was diagnosed with cerebral palsy after having an in-utero stroke. Having paddled with these two on the team Los Angeles Racing Dragons (LARD) I can definitely say that they are some of the nicest people that you would ever meet.
To support their medical costs, members of the team have started websites and used social netowrking outlets to try to raise money and awareness for my friends, as medical bills associated with this in-utero stroke are heavy and difficult.
At the most recent race I attended in Treasure Island, the community worked together to upvote this dream on upromisetodream.com, which is an organization that has put up $10,000, a drop in the bucket for medical bills of this type, to support the family with the most Likes on their page.
And that brings me to TL, as a parallel community to dragon boat in terms of support, I ask that anyone that reads this could take the literally few seconds to upvote my friend's dream at babyavy.com
Every little bit helps.
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I dream of dancing with my daughter. Whether it be at her wedding (which is a more concrete and reoccuring dream) or any occasion that celebrates the general thought.
You see, my beautiful girl, now one, came into this world full of challenges. Doctor's say she had an in-utero stroke. She is hearing and vision impaired, and diagnosed with cerebral palsy. Some things have changed - what we thought it would be like to be parents, the journey of raising a child. But the dreams haven't. For my wife and I, she is our first, and she is everything we ever wanted.
For now, I carry her. And we dance to music, practicing for our big moment in the future.
You see, my beautiful girl, now one, came into this world full of challenges. Doctor's say she had an in-utero stroke. She is hearing and vision impaired, and diagnosed with cerebral palsy. Some things have changed - what we thought it would be like to be parents, the journey of raising a child. But the dreams haven't. For my wife and I, she is our first, and she is everything we ever wanted.
For now, I carry her. And we dance to music, practicing for our big moment in the future.
