trisomy 21

When I look at sewing patterns, it’s like a foreign language to me. I don’t understand it. Why can’t I understand what all of those symbols on that one sheet of paper mean?

What happens when you leave a classroom iPad and a bunch of kids, led by JoJo, to ‘do their homework by themselves’? The Angry Birds come out!

When JoJo was about eight years old I found myself in an unusual situation. Up until this point I never had to worry about babysitters, after school care, or anything else that required someone other than myself to “watch her” for a few hours, or even all day for that...

Being the new kid at school isn’t easy, and for the last two years, JoJo had been the new kid twice. Of course, it’s just kindergarten, so there aren’t any mean girls yet (you’ll hear about that in another story), and the boys don’t mind playing with the girls at...

Valentine's Day usually comes and goes for me. Restaurants are always crowded and it has always been just as fun to me to stay at home and cook something really good for dinner. This year I'm on a guilt trip. You know those moms who always come up with cutest ideas...

I heard an alarming statistic today. Ninety percent (90%) of pregnant mothers who find out that they're pregnant with a child with Down syndrome choose to end the pregnancy. It made me want to throw up. I'm going to figure out a way to have JoJo in every OB clinic in...

My favorite Looney Tunes episode is when the dancing frog dances in front of his owner, but as soon as his owner puts him on stage, he just "ribbits". I know the feeling. Except in the opposite way. JoJo's preschool years have been an incredible adventure (you'll...

I rarely ever get caught up in a TV show or in anything Hollywood, but on this day, my attention was drawn to the thirty second ad on ABC. The ad was about a contest that ABC was holding for a search for American's most extraordinary family. The winner got a free, all...

I could never get a peace about letting society dictate JoJo's course in life and especially in education. The normal flow would be to get state-funded therapy, put her in the public school special education classes, and get her a special diploma designed for kids...

I'd rather do just about anything than go to Disney World. Phillip was 9 and JoJo was 2 and Andy just wouldn't let it go. Any decent parents at least dream of taking their kids to Disney World, and this was the year that we were going to do it, too. I had been once up...

I used to have this recurring dream where I'm crossing the finish line in 100,000,000 meter race at the Olympics pushing a stroller with a child with Down syndrome in it representing my country and all of mankind in the most grueling of events. At the line I thank...

Some say that you can tell a lot about a person from their pet. There are even phycological tests that are given where your answer to "are you a dog person or a cat person" shape your entire personality profile. Basically, when I'm asked that question my answer is...

This sitting around waiting for delicate hearts (literally) to heal and moderate lifestyle living was for the birds. I have never in my life stopped everything for any reason at all, so we as a family were about to step it up a notch and resume life as normal. I have...

A couple of years ago, the Oscar winning movie The Blindside hit the theaters. It was especially interesting to us Mississippians because it is centered around a Mississippi university and is a real story about a high risk child being rescued from a destructive life....

It's only a month from JoJo's fifth birthday. I'm a little nervous about this one. Up until now, our kids have basically been babies, but now they're talking, forming little overnight groups, and the central discussion of just about every conversation between parents...

It took a couple of months for JoJo to completely recover from the open heart surgery. There were stitches (more like wires) from her belly almost to her neck and we were in and out of the cardiologist's office at least once a week for echograms. Everything was...

My favorite people in the world are those people who don't know how important they are. They just live their lives, make do, and don't have an agenda. That's how my friend John was. When I was in high school there was a boy a year older than me named John Lewis. He...