Mark your calendars...

In about a week, it will be March 21st - World Down Syndrome Day. Why March 21st you may ask? The specific type of Down Syndrome that Grant - and 95% of those with DS have- is called Trisomy 21. I'll explain more of that later, but basically it means he has 3 chromosomes on the 21st pair of his DNA instead of 2.

March being the 3rd month + the 21st day of that month = March 21st (3/21): World Down Syndrome Day.

It's a day meant to educate the public and raise awareness of the {immense} potential of those with DS. So, with Grant's 3rd birthday coming up (on March 24th), I thought I'd like to do my part in describing what makes our Grant so unique. First, I plan to give some facts, then because the facts aren't the only thing I wish people knew about individuals with Down Syndrome, I'll go into things that the medical community doesn't necessarily relate or cover.

I plan on dividing up the information and telling it over about 5 posts. I could try to put all the information into one post, but your brain and mine might explode. While I'll try to be short and sweet in my descriptions - let's face it: in my attempts at brevity, I usually fail.

But rest assured that this will be the last of the 'informative' postings. First with the food storage stuff and then this...geez. It takes quite a bit of thought and typing (not to mention lots of reading on your part...sorry about that). So don't worry. I'm going to go back to the shorter, simpler, look-what-funny-face-Grant-made posts very soon - my fingers and brain can't go on like this forever.

Where Our Story Starts

On March 24, 2006, at about 7:02 a.m., our sweet little Grant was born. He stopped crying the second he was wrapped up and put back in my arms and we thought the overwhelming love we felt for him was the only surprise of the day. Less than 2 hours later, the doctors told us two words that forever changed the course of our life: Down syndrome.

Until Grant was born, I - like most people - was only vaguely aware of what it meant to have Down syndrome. I could probably identify someone based on some of their physical features and I knew DS meant having a degree of mental retardation. There was a boy at my high school and who also attended my church that had Down syndrome. I knew him fairly well and enjoyed saying hi to him and talking with him (one of the blessings of growing up with someone with a disability is having no fear or nervousness around those who are a little different). He was the only person with Down syndrome I can ever remember knowing personally, but I still knew virtually nothing about this chromosomal disorder until those first hours and days when Grant was born. So hopefully, all this info will be helpful to someone out there (and hopefully I'll make the reading somewhat enjoyable!). I'm always willing to answer questions so feel free to ask.

*So check back soon for the first: What is Down Syndrome?