Living By Faith

We have had an uneventful couple of days around here. Besides nursing baby every 3 hours around the clock and keeping a toddler under control, I'd say things have been pretty normal. :) We've had some friends visit, some meals brought over, and some phone calls with special people who mean a lot to us, and lots of hugs and kisses and snuggles with two very important little boys.

Aunt Tammi is visiting for the week, and we love it when Aunt Tammi is here. She is so great with Adam, looks for ways to help around the house, & gives great advice, too. I am so lucky to have her & my mother-in-law helping so much when I need them. I joked with Connie (my mohter-in-law) the other day that if she would continue keeping my kitchen looking so nice, I'd just keep having grandbabies for her!

I called "First Steps" today to get started on whatever therapies Levi may need and was told that it is probably too early to start because Levi is so young and that someone will be calling me back. I was warned that this would happen and am preparing for what to say when my phone call is returned. The program is free of charge and is through the state, but it sounds like I will have to really push to get Levi's needs met. I was prepared to be an advocate for him when he started school. I didn't think I'd have to start fighting for him at 2 weeks of age. The advocacy adventure begins!

I found some neat websites today with fun T-shirts, etc. that say things like "I have designer genes" and "Real friends don't count chromosomes." I got a kick out of looking at them.

Something that people may find interesting is that there is a test that can be done during pregnancy to determine if a genetic disorder is likely. You can have an amniocentesis done between 15-20 weeks of pregnancy. The test increases risk of miscarriage and does not tell you for sure if your child has Down Syndrome or not. It just tells you if it is a possibility. My doctor said that many women have found out that their child MIGHT have a genetic disorder and have worried themselves sick and then had a perfectly healthy child. What amazes me is that 84-91% of women who find out that their child MIGHT have Down Syndrome have an abortion. It is sickening especially b/c many of those people may have had perfectly healthy babies with no genetic problems at all. And I think that those who did have babies with Down Syndrome missed out on the life lessons that child would have taught them (lessons that they obviously needed to learn if they were that petty and selfish).

I opted out of the testing during both of my pregnancies b/c we knew that we would never even consider terminating a pregnancy, but I can see now the benefit of finding out ahead of time just to prepare yourself for the possibility. It was such a shock to deliver this baby and immediately think that something wasn't right. It was hard to hear the pediatrician tell us a few hours later that he thought Levi might have DS. It was hard waiting to find out what the test results were. I don't know if it would've been better to know about the likelihood ahead of time or not. I just wonder...