World Down Syndrome Day!!!

Today is 3-21, which is WORLD Down Syndrome Day!! I can’t even begin to explain how much those three numbers have come to mean to us over the last year. Our amazing little daughter has 3 copies of chromosome 21, and we could not possibly be more in love with her!

When we first received the diagnosis of Down syndrome, I was mortified. I was devastated, and in some ways, I thought my life was over. If only I knew. If only I knew, when I saw my baby girl for the first time, that the thing that makes her different makes her PERFECT. I look back at the unspeakable heartache I suffered, and almost have to laugh at my ignorance. My child is PERFECT. She is exactly how God intended her to be and we wouldn’t change her for anything. The life I lived previously is over, which is exactly as it should be. That life has been replaced with a life full of a kind of love I never even knew existed. It has been replaced with a life of joy and worry and sleepless nights and responsibility. A life full of deep blue eyes, toothless grins, and heart melting giggles. I never want to go back.

Today, I CELEBRATE that my beautiful daughter has Down syndrome. I celebrate the knowledge I have gained and the way my heart and mind have been opened and softened to those who may have disabilities or in some way be ‘different’.  Our journey with our little one has just begun, and I have a feeling that her angelic behavior thus far may be a special blessing for those days and years in the future when her behavior is less than angelic. Still, I wouldn’t change a thing. My heart breaks for those who suffer from such ignorance that they don’t understand the value of each life that graces this earth. My heart breaks for them, and for the lives that are terminated due to their ignorance. If only they knew.

In honor of World Down Syndrome Day, spread the LOVE!!

 

When we were in the hospital when Paige was born, and we were struggling with the "How's" and "Why's" of everything. When we were feeling so scared and so lost, this verse popped into my head and has been on repeat in my brain ever since: 

 

"Trust in the LORD with all thine heart;

and lean not unto thine own understanding.

In all thy ways acknowledge HIM,

and HE shall direct thy paths."

Proverbs 3: 5-6