Day 1: Thankful for Down Syndrome

Our Daily Fred:

I know the month of emphasis on Down Syndrome is over, and that, today, we move to a month where we choose to live in a spirit of gratefulness, and look for opportunities to be thankful.

But Down Syndrome is one of the things I'm most thankful for, so I thought I might as well start off November where I ended yesterday...and I wanted to share the words from a sign we have in our home: "We Are The Lucky Few."

I follow a girl on Instagram who has a young son with Down Syndrome. She shared that, after her son was born, a woman who was a member of "the [Down Syndrome] club," came to the hospital to offer encouragement and support to this family.

The woman told this mom, "congratulations...he's beautiful. You don't know it yet, but you have just hit the jackpot."

WOW! What an awesome thing to say!

I wish we had had that experience after Joshua was born. The lady from the "support group" who came to see me in the hospital, was so down (no pun intended!) and depressing, I had to [nicely] ask her to please leave.

Because, here's the deal...even tho I didn't know much about Down Syndrome at the time, and even tho I had no idea what life with Joshua was going to look like...I already loved him fiercely.

Now, 31 years later, I can say with confidence, "we definitely hit the jackpot with Joshua."

And, I'm thankful...because God knew it all along.

"I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made." Psalm 139: 14