A government official told me I had to make her move out of the family home at 18 years old and while that was not our plan he devised a plan to make it happen.

In recent days I have discovered that the law that he used to take her creates bias and limits services to her as a person. I have found laws and other government documents that offer a more inclusive life for her…I have not stopped looking…and so far I find no other law that says because she ‘may’ be developmentally delayed (a paper by Chris Borthwick speaks to this) she is limited to the activities of life and and the services offered by our government.

Also as a Christian I have the faith to understand that John 9 tells the story of a man freed from the restrictions of the old Testament of ‘you reap what you sow’ to freedom by Gods grace in the new Testament of healing through the acceptance of His presence. When I was told that my daughter had Downs Syndrome I never faultered…I took is as another facet of who my child would be… a girl, health except for needing heart surgery, brown hair, hazel eyes, creative, and with Downs Syndrome.

I raised her not as a ‘cripple’ or ‘disabled’ but as a girl, healthy except for the heart surgery, brown hair she eventually colored, hazel eyes that needs glasses and wonderfully talented. When she started school she was taught she was different…when she started school they told her she could not do certain things – so she did not do them at school but continued them at home.

No to me she is my daughter and I treat her as I would any 24 year old.

my baby died 3 months ago today, out of a heart complication at 7 months after 4 months of hospitilisation.she suffered so much before that.
i have been a christian since 1992.
this experience has left me v.bitter and havent gone to church since then and frankly i dnt even want to pray.i feel so let down by God.

My biggest question for God in her having DS has been how could she be made to suffer. I realize now that she is not suffering. What ever she needs will be provided for her. I now understand that these children before they were born agreed to come to this world with DS to teach the rest of us the valuable lessons of what is really important in this life: love, laughter, hope, smiles, patience, living in the moment, ect. All these thing a child with DS is born knowing….but more intelligent people have problems ( delays) in learning.Its our careless comments that bring these children pain not their extra chromosome. I’ve learned more in the past three years than I know I would of in the rest of my life with out Nadia. She and the others with DS are a true blessing to the world.

I stumbled upon this message and realized that God was talking to me about issues I needed to address within my family and outside my family… my parents are both deaf and my mother also has Cerebral Palsy.
Growing up I always worried about my parents spiritual well being.

Now its been affirmed even more so.

My dad is now a preacher in a Deaf community. That was why God made him that way. We all have our gifts… my dads was deafness…. my mom’s was both deafness and CP… but she was a phenomenal mother and proved the doctors and her family members wrong on many occasions and strongly walks in the LORD and is a shining example to others.

Those of you with DS children or any child of disabilities… keep in mind… its never our time or our plan…its HIS time…HIS plan. He is never wrong.

Blessings all

He went back to crawling on his belly, and he learned to walk again at about seven years old. Today Mark is 50 years old. Mark still can’t read, tell time or count money. He really mustn’t try to walk down a stairway without holding onto something, and he tends to spill things.

But this isn’t really a sad story. As young adults my dad and mom felt pretty independent and sure of themselves. They felt no real need for God in their lives. Then Mark got stung. In their shaken condition, Dad and Mom turned to the gospel of Christ and became Christians. I’m one and a half years younger than Mark, so all of my memories of Dad and Mom are of them living as devoted Christians. It was only natural for me to become a Christian too when I was old enough to understand spiritual things.

Today I’m in my 23rd year of pastoral ministry–16 years in a church of 300 wonderful people in Virginia Beach. Sometimes people tell me that our church has changed their lives, and many people have come to know the Lord through our ministry. Mark’s “sacrifice” of health, brought my parents to eternal health, which led to my salvation, which led to… Mark has a piece of every Kingdom success I have ever known, and God will make his sacrifice worth his while. I wonder how many other people will fare as well in eternal rewards as Mark will.

Incidentally, my parents and Mark served as missionary guest house hosts in Zambia, Africa from 1990-1994. When they came back to the U.S. (Charlotte, NC), Mark got a nice job at Black and Decker and bought his own town house a few blocks from my parents house. He gets most of his dinners with Mom and Dad, but he lives by himself and is loved by everyone.

As you might guess by my story, I deeply believe in what Miriam is presenting here in her Einstein Syndrome website.