Our Story

Everybody has a story. Here is ours. I'm not going to start at the beginning, since I'm not exactly sure where it began.

Somewhere in the middle David and I got married. Not long after that we had our first surprise, William. He was born in January 2004 and brought with him another surprise, an extra chromosome. At first the diagnosis of Down Syndrome was so daunting and heart wrenching. Feeling somewhat under qualified at having a baby let alone one with special needs we had no idea what we were in for. But we've been quite lucky. He is healthy and boisterous and doesn't ever slow down. We've struggled along the way not knowing how well he can hear. But lots of test and 4 tubes later we know he can hear. He just is like any other boy...he has selective hearing. As soon as he became mobile we've been chasing him down ever since. Right now he attends Preschool four days a week. We continue to work on his communication. He's been signing since he was about a year. Now he has a few words in his vocabulary...mommy, more and no. All the important ones.

Our daughter Ruth was born a couple of years and a few months later in May 2006. She is too much like her mom, in almost every respect. It's scary to see some of, what you consider, your worst traits come out in a 2 year old. The older she gets the more fun she is to me. She loves dolls and getting her toe nails painted and everything little girls love. She also loves, probably more than anything, her mom. She also has early signs of becoming the "mother hen." As she loves to do anything and everything if it involves her baby sister. Sometimes I wonder if I ever have to give her anything again.

We had more surprises with the birth of number 3. Mary Adeline was born on July 2, 2008. Both David and I knew as soon as she was born that she also had Down Syndrome. While we both felt somewhat let down the devastation we felt with William wasn't there. So far she has been very healthy. She even passed her hearing screens in the hospital (we made them do it twice)! She does seem to have a few tiny holes in her heart and so we will be meeting with a Pediatric Cardiologist soon. She is coming to that fun stage where she is more expressive and even a little sassy (oh dear) but she continues to be very tolerant...of all of us!

Due to complications, the bleeding kind, I had to have an emergency hysterectomy right after Mary was born. I knew these kinds of things can happen but never imagined they would happen to me, especially at 27. Being faced with the thought of having no more children has been much more daunting to me than raising two children with special needs. Immediately following surgery I spent a night in ICU. David and I talked long into the night, seeing as I was still in too much pain to sleep. We both felt that our priorities had changed in an instant. We both agreed that I needed to quit my job at the hospital and focus on our family.

In the days that have followed I spent my time healing both physically and emotionally. And now I am trying to figure out what being a stay at home mom really means. A week and a half ago I went to work to officially quit my job, that was a big day for us. I tried to focus on our lesson from Family Home Evening that week (which consists of a Gospel Art picture and singing songs). Jesus was walking on water and said to His Apostles "O ye of little faith."

Which brings us to here. I thought what better way to document this new adventure than to start a blog! I've always been a big fan of journaling and I feel that it was given to us to find gratitude for what we have and to heal from the trials that surround us. And so our story continues...