xoH

Love Sophie’s Brownie buddies!

And it reminds me that I have been meaning to write you a note myself. Because I’m 37 (nearly 38) and pregnant, my midwife has been encouraging me to get the non-invasive tests to check if my baby has the likelihood of chromosomal abnormalities. When she first asked if I wanted this, I said, “What would I possibly do with that information?” And then I realized the obvious answer: “I would phone up Amy Silverman and get even more tips than I’ve already gotten from her about how to parent a kid with Down syndrome, and I’d get myself as prepared as I could be for the adventure to come.”

The tests came back negative, so my chances are down to 1 in 11,000 or so. But the nice thing was, it didn’t really matter. Because reading your blog has made me think that parenting a kid with Down syndrome IS an adventure (“the best thing that ever happened to you,” I think your profile used to say), not an easy adventure, but certainly one that I could embark on, knowing already to expect heart problems and social-service-negotiations and IEPs and struggles around friendships and finding fashionable eye-glasses and everything else you write about. It’s an enormous demystification you’re doing for all of us.

What could have been terrifying suspense in all those visits to various doctors’ offices (drawing blood, measuring the fat-folds in the back of the fetus’s neck, drawing more blood later…) became far less terrifying, because your blog has made Down syndrome seem so much less foreign to me.

I know I’m not quite your intended audience, if such a creature even exists. I don’t live in Arizona, don’t have a child with Down syndrome or any reason to care particularly about it — before this pregnancy at what I’m now learning is apparently old age. I just happened on your blog and loved your writing and your attitude.

And it turns out I’ve been learning a whole lot all along, from you, without realizing it.

Thanks.