Better Together

When our daughter was born with Down Syndrome and we told friends and neighbors, we would often hear how sorry they were. This was their best attempt at expressing sympathy for our situation. 

But our first doctor shared a different perspective. 

She told us about other parents in similar situations who were very worried in the beginning, and completely changed camps. Over time they realized they would not trade any part of their experience with their ID/D child. 

This is the ironic limitation of the “typical” community when it comes to the ID/D population. They do not get to experience the value, benefits and countless gifts that individuals with ID/D are uniquely capable of offering the rest of us. 

We often refer to our daughter, Wendy, as our teacher. She’s taught us to live by true priorities (empathy, compassion, patience, gratitude, tolerance), instead of all the exhausting and useless emotions that we relied on to drive our ignorant habits and behaviors.

Our daughter has created the opportunity for us to live in the world that she sees, not one contaminated by our perceived advantages over the ID/D community. We will forever be grateful for this gift and will do our best to share it and all of its adventures with as many others as possible.

The world needs it!