Hi PB and friends,
I can feel your pride as I read your post.
I answered this thread awhile back about facing this decision (of bringing children into the world) knowing that both my husband and I have IBD. We were told it "wasn't hereditary, but was familial." That was back in the 1960s when less was known. We talked about adoption but decided to go ahead with having our own children. When my oldest was 12, he started to bleed (Crohn's) and then years later my younger son was diagnosed with UC in his twenties. My then-husband and I were devastated, thinking that our kids were going to relive the horrors of our childhood illnesses. But times had changed, and medical technology and medications made management of their conditions a lot easier. Neither one has needed surgery. Both completed school and went on to college. Jay (who now lives in Australia) worked at the Museum of Natural History and was on the staff of the team who redid the Hall of Ocean Life. He picked the colors, the fonts, and put together the dioramas of the ecosystems of the world. As he said before he left for Australia, he left his handprint on the walls of the museum (NYC). My older son is a 6th-grade science teacher who won the Teacher of the Year award last year and who was also chosen to go to Space Camp, which is limited to 200 teachers from around the world each year.
I may have my painful memories of difficult times, but I'm proud to have brought two wonderful human beings into the world. They have productive lives, wonderful marriages, beautiful children, and are good people. Like you, PB, had I known (the future), I would have had more. But I'm blessed and am always grateful.