Our daughters were born at 28 weeks. In the NICU, we learned that Siya had a brain injury that would shape how she grows up. We looked it up on Google like any new parent, and what we read was frightening. We asked ourselves why us, and what it would mean for Siya, for Mira, and for our family. We did not have answers. We had each other, and a decision to take whatever came and make it our plan for life.
Then came the days we were most afraid of: bringing the girls home, watching Siya closely, trusting a mother's instinct when something felt wrong, and pushing for answers when we were told not to worry. At every appointment, we told her story from the start, with a bag of papers in hand, and every time something got left out. We learned that early intervention matters, and that nobody hands you a map. We learned it ourselves, one therapy, one specialist and one second opinion at a time. Along the way we found people who guided us, and we learned how much it helps to hear from someone who has been there.
Our own road was a bumpy one. Surbhi fought postpartum depression and questioned everything, even the decision to have children. Family and friends carried us through to acceptance sooner than we could have on our own. We also saw the other side of what we were learning. In waiting rooms and therapy centres, we met parents who had started earlier than us, and parents who had only just found out and were still asking why. We did not realise this world existed until it became ours.