World Down syndrome Day 2012

Tomorrow is World Down syndrome Awareness Day!!!

Tomorrow is the day that we celebrate our beautiful blue-eyed babes with Down syndrome!!

Tomorrow, if I can touch just one person and help educate them about what it really means to have Down syndrome......my mission will be accomplished!

I want to start off with a great video that features people with Down syndrome from all over the world.

If you would have told me five years ago that I would have a child with Down syndrome and would become an advocate for her and all of her friends that are blessed with an extra chromosome......I would have thought you were crazy!

And yes, I said "blessed with an extra chromosome"....... I know that I have said this many times before.....but, there is something SERIOUSLY special about Madi!!  She lights up my world!!  I am her mama and, of course, I am going to love her to pieces.  But, other people pick up on this "specialness".
It just emanates from her!  When she smiles, she transforms your world!  I only wish that I could have that secret power over people!

There is a lot of controversy in the Down syndrome community lately.  With the couple that sued for the wrongful birth of their daughter with Down syndrome and the new prenatal blood test that is said to "eradicate Down syndrome" ........... those of us that are advocates and self-advocates have their work cut out for ourselves!

I am not a person that is able to write out my thoughts and have them expressed as eloquently as many of my fellow bloggers, so I would like to share a few blogs that I follow that have touched on some of these controversial topics.

First off, fellow blogger over at A Perfect Lily has done a series of blog posts that cover the prenatal blood tests.  To really get the whole message that she is making, you need to start with the first post, We Have A Voice.  When you read today's post, A Positive Outcome, you will recognize a familiar face......Madi!!!

Another blogger to check out is Everything and Nothing from Essex.  She pretty much tells it like it is to the couple that sued over their child.

My all time favorite blogger...........the wonderful Kelle Hampton over at Enjoying the Small Things.  She is the reason I was able to make it through those first few months after Madi was born.  When Madi was born, I was so scared.  Scared of the future.......scared of the unknown.  But, seeing her daughter, Nella, be just a "typical" little girl who happens to have Down syndrome.......it made it all okay.  It gave me hope for the future.  And it made me realize that we can be a "normal" family.

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My plans for tomorrow are to go to Taylor and Madi's school at the Goddard and talk to the classes about Down syndrome.  I made up a fun poster with pictures of Madi doing regular things like her "typical" peers do.  I am reading the book, My Friend Isabelle to the classes and have put together a letter to all the parents in the school.  The letter shares all the great things that Madi is doing, just like her "typical" peers and debunks some of the myths about Down syndrome.  

Head over to My Stubborn Little Miss to check out other bloggers that are celebrating World Down syndrome Day!

HAPPY WORLD DOWN SYNDROME DAY!!!!