Picture

Sons Terry and Brian walking with Meghan. I found this today while looking for a folder that appears to have been lost, either deleted accidentally, or through a memory loss. It was important, and I am pretty upset about it. A lot of the items were original logos I made, a brochure I made as well, all gone.

Always check your child's homework

Something I got in an email today, I wanted to share.

Children were asked to draw a picture of what their Mommy does for work....here is what one little child drew -


(Here's the reply the teacher received the following day)

Dear Mrs. Jones,I wish to clarify that I am not now, nor have I ever been, an exotic dancer. I work at Home Depot and I told my daughter how hectic it was last week before the blizzard hit. I told her we sold out every single shovel we had, and then I found one more in the back room, and that several people were fighting over who would get it. Her picture doesn't show me dancing around a pole. It's supposed to depict me selling the last snow shovel we had at Home Depot.From now on I will remember to check her homework more thoroughly before she turns it in. Sincerely,Mrs. Smith

Ahhhh Meghan

Only one accident in our potty trained girlie. So yea, it took 8 years, but by golly, this girl is a panty wearing big girl now! She ate half the apple and I found it in the garbage, grrrr, she always does that. If I cut it up for her, she will not eat it. Kara does the same thing.

You can tell Meghan is growing up, I can see the face she will have as a pre-teen, that is coming up sooner that I wish...

The interactions I have with folks when we are out and about is intriguing to me. When I look at the girls and see girls, not Ds, so I always feel surprised when people notice the girls have Down syndrome. When we were at the doctors office today an elderly couple came out of the orthopedists office and spied the girls. Kara was in my lap, Amanda was in the double stroller, and Meghan was running around us. The wife said "Do they all have Downs?" I said yes, she said "Are they all yours?" I said yes, and she asked if I gave birth to all three (with an incredulous look on her face, I definitely look too old to have three little ones I guess) I told her God gave us Meghan and led us to adopt Kara and Amanda. She smiled at me and said "You must be a saint". I chuckled and told her, I was far from being saintly, and she said "You are one in my book dear, God bless your kind heart". It was very sweet of her to take the time to interact with us. We get stared at wherever we go, with some not so nice looks from elderly women, I always suppose they must have given up a special child in their younger years; they have such a guilt-ridden look on their faces. I try to imagine why they look at us the way they do, and try to explain it away. Surely my girls cannot cause anger in people by their very existence, could they?

Inevitably there is someone we meet who will call us saints, we always smile and are kind to these folks, but we wish they would just see two parents who love their children. We were not on a mission to save the world when we decided to adopt, we never wanted acclaim, if we could move about unnoticed, we would, but with our beautiful daughters, it is not possible. We wish we were invisible at times, it would be easier to go about our business. We did not go to the press and get interviewed on TV when we brought the little girls home. We wanted to quietly go on with our lives. This is not to say that others who did do interviews searched out the limelight, I know many wanted to get the word out about the children available for adoption internationally who had Ds or CP, etc. They did a wonderful job making the public aware of the children waiting for forever families. We did this too in our own way, we tell everyone who asks where the girls are from and how many children still wait there for families. I never grow weary of discussing my children with people sincerely interested.

So much has been happening in our family and with our friends that we have not had a lot of time to do much blogging. Three very good friends are fighting cancer and it has deflated our family a bit, regardless of the time that has passed since your diagnosis, the cancer imp sits on your shoulder and taunts you. I think my kids are feeling anxious about me and my past breast cancer fight. I cannot go into details about their friends issues, but one has had a recurrence, and another is newly diagnosed and I think it brings back my children's fears of losing me. Their feelings are left unsaid but yet their body language and facial expressions say so much more than the words they are afraid to utter. I feel I have to say it, cancer SUCKS, and I hate that it affects so many people, no one is left unscathed by the ravages of it, can anyone say any longer that they do not know someone who has cancer or has died from cancer? I doubt it.

Meghan was in a good mood today, our next door neighbors daughter came over to play, I hope they enjoy each others company, I don't know what S thinks of Meghan, but I know Meghan likes her.

I posted pictures on Kara's and Amanda's blogs today, if you want to go over and take a look at theirs too.

It was a really long day, it is time to go to bed.

Understanding of Down’s syndrome may aid breast cancer therapy

One of my worries for my biological daughter is their risk of getting breast cancer, my mother and aunt had it, my sister and I had it, and their risk increases because of this. Gayla, a mom with two bio daughters with Ds shared this with me. I am praying it means Meghan will not share the risk her sister may, and pray daily none of my kids ever have to face cancer.

Understanding of Down’s syndrome may aid breast cancer therapy 9 01 2009

Here’s a pretty interesting theory on how the understanding of Down’s syndrome may help in the development of therapy for breast cancer sufferers.
Apparently breast cancer is rare amongst women with Down’s syndrome, possibly because of the extra copy of chromosome 21, which is “where the gene that codes for the antiangiogenic protein Endostatin is located”.
The theory is that treating people with Endostatin “a Down syndrome level” could be a therapy for early stage breast cancer that indefinitely prolongs remission and makes chemotherapy or hormone therapy unnecessary.
From the perspective of attitudes towards Down’s syndrome the interesting thing about this is that it is only possible to pout forward this theory now that women with Down’s syndrome are living to an age when it is most common (50 to 69 according to NetDoctor).

A study conducted in 2000 indicated that while people with Down’s syndrome have an increased risk of leukemia, they have a lower incidence of many other forms of cancer, including breast cancer.

Meanwhile a year ago a study at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine indicated that a gene called Ets2 that sits on the 21st chromosome may, alongside endostatin, be key.

“If there were no such thing as Down syndrome, we probably wouldn’t have found this because it wouldn’t make a lot of sense to take these oncogenes that we thought were genes that cause cancer and try to express them at high levels to try to prevent cancer. But that’s what happens,” said researcher Roger Reeves. “People with Down syndrome have now given us all the possibility of lowering the incidence of cancer in everybody.”

A huge Meghan brag

"I love Kawa, I love Moo" said by Meghan at the doctors office on Thursday. Translated to ; "I love Kara, I love Amanda"

Developmental delay; something we have been hearing since Meghan was born, and her lateness in walking (20 months. not too bad really) and talking (6 years before she said a sentence) is also accompanied by difficulty for her with potty training. Even though she has gone number 2 on the potty for a couple of years. (Kara's adoption stopped that in it's tracks, she wanted the attention Kara received).
Since Kara came home we have been working on getting Meghan back on the potty, but gently, if she is pushed, she can out-stubborn anyone. We kept her in pull-ups because she did not seem to have any idea when she needed to go number 1 (Ok I know it is silly to say number one and two, but somehow saying otherwise sounds wrong to me for Meghan's blog) and she would wet everything. I figured her low tone also affected her ability to feel when she needed to go number 1 too.

I talked to my friend Kathy, who went through this delay with her son, and she said what others said; "Bite the bullet and put her in panties, it is the only way to get her using the potty", so Kathy, Stephanie, and others, this is what we have been doing, and Meghan has had two dry days and one night! She also refuses to wear the pull ups anymore. Do you suppose the 400 times I told her big girls wore panties finally sunk in? LOL. We take her to the potty on a schedule, first thing in the morning, after breakfast, mid-morning, after lunch, early afternoon, after dinner, and before she goes to bed, she goes number 2 on her own. I think she was finally ready to be the big sister and not the baby, PTL, it has been a long struggle. I am hoping she continues on her path to big girlhood.

Thanks to my friends Stephanie and Marsha, who handed down dozens of pairs of undies for Meghan, she has enough to wear a few pairs a day if need be! Meghan also has several brand new pairs coming in the mail too, I know that will make her happy. She adores new clothes, and she is proud of her big girl underwear too.

On another note, guess who made honor roll at her school? Yepper, it was Meghan, she met all the goals set in her IEP (as far as percentages go) and she was given an honor roll certificate! No she does not do all the work a typical second grader does, but she finishes what is given to her with moms help! We modify the curriculum for her.


This was the bumper sticker she received, I wanted to put it on our van below our Ds advocacy ribbon, but we do not put stickers on our cars. We may put it on her bedroom door though!