Every day I am rewarded by the number of people who read my posts.
I am thankful my experience of the mother of an extraordinary teenager can
perhaps help others. I have been told a number of times there are lots of
stories about younger children with down syndrome but not as many about
teenagers.
I wrote, "From
Grief to Celebration, How One Family Learned to Embrace the Gift of Down
Syndrome" to share
this story of love, life, magic and down syndrome. Our critically acclaimed
book details our journey through ten verbs beginning with grief, ending with
plan and incorporating one bonus verb, celebrate. I hope this can be a
resource to help others embrace, understand and learn. The book is
available through this blog ($12.50) on-line booksellers ($13.99) and kindle
(reduced to $3.99 during October).
In honor of Down syndrome awareness month I will be publishing
excerpts of each verb/chapter for the next 12 days and give-away three copies
of the book, signed by Alex, at the end of the month.
Preface - The Day that
Rocked our World
Our daughter Alex was
born three weeks early on Saturday, June 19, 1993. She weighed less than 6
pounds and measured 17 petite and perfect inches. I fell in love at first
sight.
Alex entered the world
my favorite color, turquoise blue, her umbilical cord wrapped around her neck.
Her Apgar score was low, so we only had a few moments with her until she was
rushed to the neonatal intensive care unit at the hospital. In the moments
before she was whisked away, I saw that she had a partial head of black hair,
ten beautiful fingers, ten beautiful toes, and the tiniest ears I had ever
seen. My heart sank at the thought of her requiring extra medical care.
The doctor assured us
she would be fine, but I didn’t believe him, as the sound of the room going
eerily quiet when Alex’s head emerged from the birth canal still rang in my
ears. In an attempt to quash the fear that was rising up from my stomach, I
asked the nurse if something was wrong. Her hesitation spoke much louder than
her minimal words of comfort.
As soon as I could
gather enough strength after the delivery, my husband John helped me shuffle
down to the NICU. I felt a surge of adrenalin coupled with fear. Will Alex be
okay? What’s wrong with my perfect baby? Why did the mood in the delivery room
resemble a funeral parlor instead of the party-like atmosphere that was present
after the birth of my firstborn just 15 months earlier? It was a sense of dread
I had never experienced.
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To read more please
enter our give-away:
These are only two requirements to be entered in the drawing
- and Alex will pick the winner!
1. Please like "The Ordinary Life of an Extraordinary Girl" on facebook (link on the sidebar), or
2. Follow this blog, on networked blogs (also on sidebar)
Stay tuned
12/31 Book give-away: Research
Blogging the beginnings. Its so much fun to read all the birth stories!
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