Originally Posted by ian-mstm

In Hebrew it means "to ascend"... thus, to go up!

Ian

Originally Posted by Gingerert

Hmm... Interesting point.

However, there are state-wide funding programs for newborns born with difficulties who needs require excessive costs. There's SSI, or Medicaid, or others that were mentioned to me at the time that I've now forgotten about. SSI is particularly useful for parents whose children are in the NICU for an extended amount of time.

In short, while we had some financial burdens, if we had been without insurance we still would have been okay. The state will take care of the child, because this baby will be born on American soil to a USC father. We had insurance so the bulk of our costs were absorbed, but the bills we've had over Little O's lifetime now amount to over $2 million.

And we could have relieved our own financial burden if we had accepted aid sooner. We didn't fully appreciate the extent of Little O's lifelong problems at the time, or we would have applied for and received financial aid sooner.

And to the OP - The point Rete was referring to was that we didn't know my Little O had a rare chromosome disorder before he was born. While your first son was healthy and happy, there's always a risk your next one won't be. So I agree with the other posters that you need to be prepared for the worst, but it sounds like you already are.

I'm currently pregnant too, with my second. I wish you a lovely, peaceful pregnancy and for it to be as low-cost as possible.

Originally Posted by jeffreyhy

Going off on a tangent (because the similarities and differences between Arabs and Jews stimulates my curiosity) googling <aliyah> I found nothing but references to the Hebrew and to Israel, most of them dealing with immigration to Israel. Stopped after 3 screen pages.

Then, switching to <aliyah arabic> I did get arabic references - all of them with the spelling aaliyah (double 'a').

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming ...

Regards, JEff