My daughter's first Christmas gift...

It's easy for the Smith family to count our blessings around Christmas. Five years ago today we were sitting, worried and anxious, in the sub-specialty waiting room at Naval Medical Center San Diego. We didn't know exactly why we were there with our precious 2 week old daughter, but we knew it couldn't be good. Soon our fears were realized. Our daughter's newborn screening had come back positive for cystic fibrosis.

-Our daughter's first Christmas present was a diagnosis...

-Before we knew she loved elephants, the number 4, or the color red, we knew she had cystic fibrosis...

It was a shock to us and our first few days were spent researching everything we could to figure out what our daughter had. I remember that first Christmas as a happy one despite the diagnosis. As I look back, I'm grateful for the diagnosis being so early. Despite how devastating it was for us at the time, it allowed us to get a very early start on our daughter's treatments. Still, it's sad to think about the fact that we knew this about her before we knew anything else. We didn't even know she had blond hair before we knew she had CF.

Christmas is almost here. We're thankful for another one and what looks like to be the fifth of many. One of Sam's gifts will continue to be added years because of her first gift of an early diagnosis. Keep up the good work, everyone, and we'll find a cure in time!