Sunday, August 30, 2009

Princess can have Down syndrome too

Okay, I will confess...I stole that from a t-shirt that my daughter has. I discovered it at a website several months ago and she simply had to have it.
See, the fact of the matter is, E is a princess to us no matter what. She is her daddy's little girl and perfect in every way. I had never really thought about those parents I would see that had a child with a disability although if I were honest, I would admit that often I would feel pity. Pity for what I guess I assumed their poor lives much be like without having any firsthand knowledge as to what the reality of the situation might be. I now know how those parents felt and I would love to find each and every one of them and apologize. Pity has no place in our home. Our daughter was a gift not a curse.
Statistically she is a gift that more than 85% of the mothers facing the same outcome would have done away with. I believe it is close to 89% that choose to terminate when a diagnosis of Down syndrome is made. While I judge no one for the decisions they make regarding their own lives and those of their unborn child, that statistic still makes me sad.
We did not know prior to E's birth there was a problem. I had declined the testing simply because for me, it wouldn't have changed the outcome. It would have stressed me out those last few months, but my daughter was coming to be either way. Someone asked me once would I have preferred to know before hand and I answered a resounding, NO. While it might have had me better educated on the subject, the stress factor alone made me glad this was a surprise. I will admit to spending the first few weeks in the NICU with every book on the subject I could get my hands on, but the things that could have been wrong and weren't, would have had me totally freaked by the time she was born.
E is eighteen months old, she isn't quite walking yet and her vocabulary is not where I would like it, but she is undeniably a princess. Our life is fantastic, she is the light of our world and please if you ever see us out and about, just smile, don't pity. Life here in Holland really isn't that bad!

1 comment:

  1. I just came across your blog about your daughter being a princess! I completely agree! And I have a precious niece that is a princess too!! I'm going to have to track down that t-shirt for her!

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