Welcome to Dear Jasmina!
The Short
Jasmina and I are friends since meeting in 2004. We’re godparents to each other’s children. But my husband Christian and I get unique bragging rights because we are godparents to a double-transplant-miracle-of-science. But since miracles of science are best performed in Toronto our friendship now spans kilometers. This blog is the bridge.
The long
I come from Saskatchewan and Jasmina (right) comes from Austria. We married manitobans – she David and I Christian. David and Christian were best friends since childhood, so it followed that their choice in women was somewhat similar… fine imports with more or less complicated names. Hers inspired by jasmine in bloom when she was born, and mine… after an Aunt who is not at all spanish. (Because people ask, trying to guess the etymology. I’m French-Irish and if my name were true to culture, I would be called Patricia. I’ve grown used to Jacinta, thank-you.) We could be taken for sisters, except that I don’t speak German. I might some day. It’s on my life list of things to do.
David and Jasmina married two years before Christian and I and their first child was born in December of 2004. Sébastien came into our lives with gastroschisis – a rare condition in which the intestines slip through a hole in the abdominal wall and develop in the mother’s amniotic fluid. The emergency birth led to surgery and numerous complications that were chronicalled on the blog Place de choix. In 2006 Sébastien received a double transplant (liver and intestines) at the Toronto Sick Kids Hospital. However, the stress of the operation and recovery damaged his kidneys and left him dependent on dialysis. After recovering recently from PTLD (a transplant-related cancer), the family looks forward to having a chance of receiving a kidney for Sébastien. The good news is that Sébastien is a vibrant little boy and daily surprises us with his willingness to be like any other boy his age.