Random Information

Since I haven't had a chance to download my recent pictures from this last weekend's trip to Chicago, I thought I would share some random information with you. It was while we were in Chicago waiting to be seated at a pizzeria, when Kelley and I noticed that there was a little girl about 8 or 9 years old staring at me. I recognized her stare right away - its the look people get when they see someone with two different color eyes for the first time. It's caused all kinds of reactions - I mean all kinds.
When I was a little girl, my eyes were blue like most babies. Then after a few months, one eye got darker and the other remained the same. My mom took me to the doctor and he explained this happens sometimes, but it was nothing to be concerned about. As a young child with this condition, I thought I was cursed. Kids were ruthless in teasing me and making fun of my eyes. When your young, being different is weird and strange, but as you get older, you become unique and cool. I remember one time when a bunch of little boys from an inner city that we were ministering in, took one look at me and called me a witch. It started to draw a lot of attention from the kids and my only way of curbing the situation, was to tell them that if they didn't stop, I would put a curse on them. That seemed to do the trick ;-) I've also had many people comment that they had only seen this in animals, such as cats or huskies. This is true, even my first dog, Frodo had two different color eyes like me - we had a special bond because of it.
As I've grown older I've heard some serious doozies. For instance, while I was getting my oil changed in Shoreline a number of years ago, a mechanic walked up to me and thought he would be all sly and tell me that I was missing a contact. That's the most common one I hear. Or I often get asked if I'm aware that I have two different color eyes? Really? Get out! My favorite was while at a grocery store a couple years ago. The teller at the cash register tried to actually convince me that I was blind in my left eye. She said she'd seen that before, and that's what was wrong with it. Oh how we love stupid people. OH and I love this one! I have actually had a number of people ask me if I can see more blue out of one eye and more brown out of the other. Seriously?
(central heterochromia)

When I got into my early twenties, I wanted a name for it. An explanation. Something to be able to explain to people when they gave me that look like a booger was hanging out of my nose or that I had just grown a third eyeball. It was while visiting Christ Church Metro that an eye specialist had been visiting and I had found my answer. He told me it was called Heterochromia. Only one in a million people have it. For example - here's a list of people that you may not have known have two different colored eyes as well: Dan Aykroyd, Kate Bosworth, David Bowie and Jane Seymour (who I've met).
Heterochromia is caused by one parent carrying the usual normal autosomal chromosome that most people have and then the other parent is a carrier of the abnormal autosomal chromosome. If that happens, then the abnormal chromosome becomes dominant and with it automatically carry's a 50% chance of giving the child two-different colored eyes. So basically - I'm a carrier (duh) and if I have four kids, then two of them will more than likely have eyes like mine and two of them the same color eyes. Just like one of my parents is obviously a carrier and if they had one more child, then that child would probably have eyes like me. Not to mention, Kris & Kati might be carriers as well, but just ended up being the other 50% that doesn't show the trait (like mom & dad) - but their kids have a 50-50 chance as well. Kinda interesting...hopefully your not all bored by this point. I added some more pics just for the heck of it. These pictures are of other people I found that have heterochomia to different degrees.
(sectoral heterochromia)

(full heterochromia)

And you know what else is cool? We have our own special holiday - July 12th "Different Colored Eyes Day" (click here to see more).

That's it for now - I'll be back soon with an update on Scott & Kelley's visit with us and our trip to Chicago this last weekend as soon as I get my pictures up!