Let us share with you Justin's story. Justin was born a healthy and happy boy on May 1, 2008. We fell in love with him right from the start, just as we did with our other children. It was only a few weeks later when I wondered to myself if he had Down Syndrome. I didn't want to come across to people as negative or paranoid, so I let it go and never shared my feelings with anyone. I figured it would have been caught by now. They checked me while I was pregnant (negative), he checked out great at the hospital, and even so at his 2 week check-up. A few people had brought it to my attention. I felt a lot of pain as the months went on because I wasn't the only one who was noticing. I brought it up to my Dr. at his 2 month check-up and he sweetly laughed it off. There was no reason to suspect such a thing. He was meeting each and every milestone and had no major features of a DS child. As the days and months passed, strangers were looking at him different and asking me if he was DS. I again brought it to the Dr.'s attention, but he still felt no need to check. I was always welcome to do the blood work, but felt I should be comfortable with his opinion. I chose to take Justin to physical therapy to work on his Torticollis and Hypotonia (low muscle tone). It was then when Mary (his PT) asked if he had ever been tested. I explained to her our history with him. I decided then that it was time to get an answer. Just this past Friday was a day that Tyler and I will never forget. I received the phone call from the Dr. while I was all alone, that my son did test positive for Downs. I instantly felt alone, lost and confused. I grabbed my little angel from his peaceful nap and wanted to protect him from this judgmental world. I thought it would be easy to hear the answer since it had been on my mind since shortly after his birth. That is something you just can't prepare yourself for. Tyler left work immediately and we just hugged and cried. We weren't angry or sad, but had a feeling of "where do we go from here?" We had a wonderful amount of family support through out the remaining of the day, which we are forever grateful for. We already knew there was something amazing and special about this child. The love that we already had for him multiplied by thousands. We just wanted to hold him close and let him know that we weren't going to let him down. We realize that he is an amazing and choice spirit that was sent down from our Heavenly Father and he chose US to be his parents. A little overwhelming.... sure. But we know we wouldn't be given more than we could handle. Saturday was one of the greatest days of my life! I woke up feeling extremely blessed and thankful for our little child. How lucky are we to have him in OUR home?! We were able to share with our girls that morning how lucky we were to have him. We had the most wonderful day taking family pictures in the canyon and felt so close to each other that day. I know it has only been a few days. I'm sure we will have our ups and downs, happy times and sad times, smiles and tears. But we are sure of one thing. The blessing will outweigh the challenges. We firmly believe that! We are beginning a beautiful journey as a family and hope you all are up to taking it with us! He has already been a blessing in our life and I know he will be able to touch each one of you and everyone he comes in contact with. We are thankful for all the love and support we have received. It means so much to us! This doesn't change our life together.... it just makes it much brighter!
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