Today is Spring Equinox. It’s Persian Naw Ruz and Baha’i New Year – it’s the end of the month-long Baha’i annual Fast.
Today is a day of celebration across cultural and religious lines, no more so than in the Down syndrome community. For those of us who love someone with a little extra, it really is a day in which we are grateful.
I’m typing this while we are driving. We are headed north, cactus and mesas flying by. The road ahead shimmers from the heat. I feel intensely grateful in this moment for everything – for all of the chapters in our story thus far.
All of them.
And that especially includes Moxie.
If someone asked me now if I’d like to take her extra chromosome away, remove her Down syndrome, I would say no, as would Mikey. We love Moxie exactly as she is, we feel she could not be more perfect.
We love her spirit, independence, her fierceness. Her intelligence. Make no mistake about it: there is a big difference between having an intellectual disability and being stupid – like most people with Down syndrome, Moxie is noone’s fool. She learns differently and in her own time – but learn, she does.
Sometimes I feel like I’ve written my fill of Down syndrome, that there isn’t anything more I could say. Experiencing this disability as intimately as we do, this disability of which so little is known, that has such a myriad of expressions, is similar to parenting in general. You think you know something about it then bam! It all starts fresh again. You parent a kid with a disability that is different from your own and bam! It’s all new.
Today is the day we are celebrating. I’m going to give you some of my favorite posts that I have written on Down syndrome:
What to Say (When You Hear My Daughter Has Down syndrome)
Top 5 Reasons I am Happy My Kid Has Down syndrome
Learning to Run
I Never Knew I Wanted a Child with Down syndrome
Disability & Star Trek
Be Not Scared
Choosing Moxie
Vials of Moxie
and a new post… A Day in the Life (of a Traveler with Down syndrome)..which is a part of the Blog Hop going on right now over at Down syndrome Blogs – read more there!
Happy, happy 3.21. Happy Naw Ruz, happy Spring Equinox, and oh, what a happy day that celebrates the people we love with three copies of the twenty-first chromosome: 3.21!
Meriah Nichols is a counselor. Solo mom to 3 (one with Down syndrome, one on the spectrum). Deaf, and neurodiverse herself, she’s a gardening nerd who loves cats, Star Trek, and takes her coffee hot and black.
Hi Meriah, I was brought to your blog by your comment on the Happy Soul Project post “what makes you different is what makes you beautiful.” Love your perspective. My wife and I have worked for years as caregivers and are in the process of adopting out of the foster care system here in Vancouver, BC. Nothing irks us more than “inspiration porn”, as you put it in your book review. Many people notice disabilities because of difference. I’ve committed my life to this work because everyday I’m reminded of sameness, I’m totally fascinated by it. Thanks for your voice!
thank you SO MUCH for your comment!
I hope to get to know you and your wife. I have always loved the thought of adopting out of the foster care system – I was shocked when I checked it in the US right before I had baby #1 (and was planning on foster/adopt as a single parent) – sooooooooooo, soo, sooo many kids. Even more with disabilities. I remember pages and pages of photos with names and bios and it was just heartbreaking.
I’m glad I’m in good company in noticing the sameness of us all. 🙂
We’d love to meet you guys sometime! We will actually be driving down to Santa Cruz in August, who knows, maybe our paths will cross. And yes, the adoption numbers are staggering. They are bad enough in Canada but we’ve also been watching the statistics in the US and it’s amazing. International adoption gets a lot of attention but there are SO MANY close to home. In canada the bulk of those kids are aboriginal, raising all kinds of issues around culture, identity, etc. We also spend a lot of time reading those names and bios. I think we are on the path towards serial adoption.