Today (July 22) the first of a series of articles about our family and our experience of having a child with Down syndrome was published by my friend Becca. Becca is the little sister of one of my closest friends in the entire world. She may always be about 12 to me but in reality she is all grown up. Her daughter Abby is only a month younger then Riley. They both surprised us with an early entrance in to the world and have been demanding and hysterically funny ever since. Becca recently started writing for an online publication called the Examiner.com. She had asked Justin and I if she could write an article about our family and having a son with Down syndrome and of course we immediately said yes. Who wouldn't want their story shared and the world to meet an incredible child with Down syndrome aka Hurricane Riley and his Big Brother Rex. We emailed and emailed questions and questions and answers and answers and just like that the articles start to appear. I didn't give it much thought until I saw the first one appear as a link on my Facebook this morning. I new they were coming and I had read the entire series, but this morning it was different. This morning I had a bit of anxiety about the entire thing. What if I say something stupid and disappoint other families, this is my big chance to be an advocate and educate people and I don't want to mess it up. Then about two seconds later that voice in my head says "hey this is your story". We all have our story to tell and we should tell it. Tell it with all the dirty details of how scared you were or how you didn't know what in the world you were doing.Don't forget to add a little bit of the good stuff too. You know there is a lot of it so spread some around for the world to see. If you are lucky enough to tell your story to someone who wants to write about it don't be too weirded out when they crawl in to you head and tell almost like it was their own story. It is strange as I go back and read it and look at the pictures it is like I'm right back in those moments. I still tear up when I see the pictures of Riley in the NICU and I still panic as I think about the phone call that told me Riley would have Down syndrome. I wonder if I will always be able to recall those moments so clearly??
I won't make you wait any longer. Please click around a bit and leave a comment and stir up some traffic for Becca. She really is a talented writer and I hope you enjoy this as much as I have.
Part 1 Meet the Kibbe's
Part 2 Learning About Down Syndrome
Part 3 Resources
Part 4 Just a Boy and His Big Brother Rex
Part 5 Looking Forward
