The Coombs Family

To my first born Shelby Lu, Shelby, you were our first child, first pregnancy and first love other than each other. Your dad and I wanted to wait until he was in or almost done with his second year of dental school before we got pregnant. We knew that the second year was the hardest and he would be gone a lot, so we made our plan. We were married for five years before we had you. I was pregnant with you when I turned 30. You were born three months after my birthday. Your dad threw a surprise birthday party for me, and I was so embarrassed. I love to spoil other people, but get very shy when the attention is on me. I was wearing a shirt with a stain, and couldn't find any clothes to fit me. My birthday was miserably hot and I was a sweaty mess. We tried to get pregnant for 6 months after we decided we were ready. I had a hard time waiting once we decided, and I had hoped it would happen instantly. Once I was pregnant I didn't get sick until the second month. I told my sister

Dear Calvin, You were quite a surprise for our family. Your dad and I wanted to have our kids pretty close together, and you came swiftly. We didn't have to try to get pregnant more than a couple of months. I was working full-time and Shelby was being watched by Rhoda during the day. I would drive from Portland to West Salem, and then into work. Every morning I was sick, and after work I just wanted to stay at Rhoda's and not get back into the car to take Shelby home. Dad was really busy with his last year of school. Luckily he did have senioritis, so he didn't study as much as he did the first three years of dental school. We were expecting you to be born about two weeks after he graduated from dental school. The plan was to move to Salem because that's where my job is located and I'm tired of driving so much. When we realized we were expecting you, we decided to move back to Salem to be closer to my work and family. So we started to shop for houses. We looked

Dear Ronin, Oh how we wanted to have another child. We tried to get pregnant for three years before we finally had you. I had been to fertility specialists, taken hormones, your dad was tested, and we just could not get and stay pregnant. Everything from being unable to conceive, to three miscarriages, and it seemed as though it would never work. Finally, after many different therapy options, I decided I couldn't do it anymore. It was such a strain on our marriage and family to constantly be taking medication, watching the calendar, and doing lots of home tests. I called the fertility doctor and said I wasn't going to move forward with IVF, our only next step. I was pregnant with you when I made the call and I just didn't know it yet. I was too tired to take more pregnancy tests, it was heart breaking every time. And then, my blood work came back from my visit a couple weeks earlier and I got a call from a nurse. Rhoda and Trevor had just bought a crazy old house that the