31 fo 21: Day 31 - Challenge Completed!

Happy Halloween!  I'll have to share our Halloween pics tomorrow.  Trick or Treat is tonight but we might all be too exhausted tonight to post.  We'll see :-)

Today is also the last day of Down Syndrome Awareness Month.  The last day of our blogging challenge.  It is bittersweet....on one hand, I will be okay without "needing" to blog everyday.  Some days I did come down to 11 something p.m.  On the other hand, I've enjoyed sharing our challenges and joys of parenting all of our children, one who happens to have an extra chromosome.  I will continue to blog...just probably not every day :-)  I use it as a journaling tool for us and it is an emotional relief for me.

I hope that through my blog I can help ease the mind of one pregnant mom that receives a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome that everything will be okay.  I hope that I can reach one mom who just received a post birth diagnosis that it isn't the end of the world and her life will be enriched.  I hope that I can educate one person who doesn't know much about Down syndrome and help them see that we are just an ordinary family with a child that has designer genes.  I want people to see that we are not suffering because of Down syndrome, not as a family or is Hailey.  She doesn't need anyone feeling sorry for her or pity her.  Hailey is not a burden.  She is a daughter, a sister, a granddaughter, a niece, a cousin....a beautiful little girl who looks like her big brother Ian and is full of smiles like her big brother Brayden.  I hope people see that she is a person...just like any other child and she wants to be treated the same.  That she is more alike than different.

Take a minute to read some of the blogs that I follow (in the column on the right).  I would love for you to share my blog with others (email it, post it on facebook).  Help me spread the word that Down syndrome is nothing to be afraid of, people with Down syndrome deserve the same respect and treatment as everyone else and their lives have the same value as everyone else.  Please help us continue opening the eyes of others.  Let them see how fabulous my little girl is (and other people with DS)!

This pics are repeats but so cute that they need looked at again :-)

In closing, I'll leave you with this and one last photo....

Down Syndrome creed

My face may be different
But my feelings the same
I laugh and I cry
And I take pride in my gains
I was sent here among you
To teach you to love
As God in the heavens
Looks down from above
To Him I'm no different
His love knows no bounds
It's those here among you
In cities and towns
That judge me by standards
That man has imparted
But this family I've chosen
Will help me get started
For I'm one of the children
So special and few
That came here to learn
The same lessons as you
That love is acceptance
It must come from the heart
We all have the same purpose
Though not the same start
The Lord gave me life
To live and embrace
And I'll do it as you do
But at my own pace

 ~Author unknown