One Pound Five Ounces

By the numbers: the Dow Jones Industrial Average (“The Dow”) is down around 2,000 points from its high, Federal Bank interest rates are .5% and possibly going lower, and our twins, who were born at 1 pound 5 ounces and 1 pound 11 ounces, respectively, turned 7 yesterday. The common denominator in all of this is my continued amazement. I’m amazed, as in, who can predict these things?

I’ll get back to my daughters in a moment, but first, the market. Last Friday I asked the question of whether the market had found its bottom. While nobody will know until hindsight allows for such clarity, there seems to have been a slowing to the bleeding. The last week has been volatile, but not a continued downward plummet. I think we all appreciate the opportunity to catch our collective breath. While I tend to avoid making predictions for a worldwide market based on the small sample size of my interactions with people, it feels as if those investors who needed to pull back the amount of risk in their investments have done so, while those who plan to stay the course have buckled-in for the ride yet to come. Now we all wait…

On the interest rate front, the Fed has tempered its original plans to raise interest rates multiple times in 2016. Clearly, the markets did not react well to the Fed’s declaration, among other factors. Meanwhile, other countries are in negative interest rate territory, so there’s still some economic healing to be done before we can signal all is well.

At home, we’re reminded again of the fragility of life itself. With Ava and Evelyn turning seven, it’s an opportunity for Carie and me to reflect back on what it meant to us to be faced with such impossible decisions and harrowing circumstances. It was suggested by doctors in 2009 that we terminate one of our twins in order to save the other. Imagine that day, if you can. There’s a phone call to grandparents that wasn’t easy to make, especially having lost a full term daughter, Catherine, just five years earlier. As you can see by the picture, you know what we decided to do.

Birthdays mean different things to different people. For us, the twins’ birthday reminds us that it’s seldom about us, but others instead. The decisions we make are much simpler when we step away from that which would make life easier for us, but focus instead on what would be best for someone else. Not easy, but we have two miraculous examples of what can happen when we trust. I’ll admit to not knowing what combination of doctors, God, the babies, and ourselves that allowed for such a beautiful outcome, but I’ll rest in knowing that we got out of the way and reveled at the mystery of it all.

Have a great weekend and feel free to have some ice cream in honor of Ava and Evelyn. They’d love it if you did!

All the best,

Adam Cufr Signature