To My Daughter With Down Syndrome on Her 1st Birthday
Life is about choices and I chose to love, protect, and be your advocate. There isn’t anything I would change in you, my daughter Savannah. You are perfect the way you are and worthy of life and all opportunities.
We are thankful for your Down syndrome diagnosis, the lessons we have learned, and look forward to the ones ahead of us. We are thankful for the spiritual growth and inner strength we feel we gain daily, all because of you. We believe God has already used you in our lives, and this is just the beginning. I believe He has many wonderful blessings for you and blessings to provide through you, showing others what pure love is without discrimination.
Every stage, like any child, has its challenges. After 13 years of parenting I have seen the reward is worth any challenge. I feel we –the parents — are the ones who grow and seem to develop more than our children. I feel I have gained spiritual growth, inner strength, and wisdom. I believe my babies are an inheritance from God and a blessing, worthy of life, no matter what society has conditioned so many to believe.
I had fear and a desperation in my heart to know things would be great after our prenatal diagnosis. I clung to my Lord and believed in my head He makes no mistakes. But emotions clouded my heart knowledge of this fact for a while. You just turned 1 year old last week and to me you are a beautiful example of God’s love. You deserve a chance for countless opportunities. My heart is to educate and encourage others as I am being educated with hope and love. There’s still so much I don’t know; I am learning as I walk through this journey with you. We will both learn together. We will laugh together and cry together. My hope is we experience the beauty in life with love and compassion for one another.
Down syndrome is a wonderful journey within our life journey and I’m so thankful for it. I believe life in general comes with challenges, some more than others. But what if we really tried to see challenges and differences with compassion and love? What if we realized we are more alike than different? We are only at the beginning of this journey, but I believe God is molding me and revealing so much about acceptance, sensitivity, inclusion and what true love is.
When given a prenatal diagnosis, emotions are not easy at times. I will never get over having to stand up for your life and wanting to scream to the world your life has worth after trying to be convinced to terminate because of an extra chromosome. I look at my three precious children, you included, lives I believe are already His. I believe God has simply given me the privilege of loving, teaching, encouraging and taking care of you.
One thing I want for you and your two sisters, is for you to have compassion and love for others, whether someone has an extra chromosome or not, and to show the world there is, “Nothing down about it.”
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