I am delighted to be guest posting over Mamapedia today. It's a post called,
What to Say When You Hear My Daughter Has Down syndrome.
It's an early post that I wrote, shooting straight from my heart and I hope you will go over there and read it (the original post is here: What to Say..)
For those of you that are visiting here from reading my post on Mamapedia, welcome!
It's good to have you and I hope you will stay awhile and we can get to know each other.
A quick blog introduction: this blog is organized into 3 categories: Disability, Travel and Family. If you want to read just one category (or another), simply stay in that section. If you'd like to read more posts on any of the categories, just search the blog for what you are interested in. I'm still catching up on reformatting my 1,000+ posts, so some posts might be a little hard to read. Sorry about that.
We can also connect over on facebook, or on twitter, pinterest, instagram (meriahnichols) – take your pick – I'm all over the place, but of course, it's just for you.
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Like Mamapedia said, this is National Down syndrome Awareness Month. Here on this blog, we are having bi-weekly giveaways for our Month with Moxie, celebrating Down syndrome – join in!
So far this week, we have a beautiful silver necklace, gifted from Bella Tu Jewelry (to enter, just click HERE), and also an e-book that I made, with photos and quotes from this blog (see sidebar to download the book or pdf or click HERE). We'll have another giveaway tomorrow from Sweet Redemption. Stay tuned.
On Friday, this blog will also be one of the hosts for a Weekend Down Syndrome Blog Hop – come on back and visit some fantastic blogs from the Down syndrome Community.
Thanks for stopping by, thanks for all your kind comments on Mamapedia, and thanks for celebrating this month with me.
And with Moxie.
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.
As the father of Bryan, a 30 year old with DS I would say to you CONGRATULATIONS and welcome to a world of joy and happiness and most of all – LOVE! Good luck!
That was a beautiful piece!
I know when my son was diagnosed with a rare genetic condition that I wanted to be around people who wanted to celebrate. I felt I missed out on that big celebration that attends the birth of a typical kid. I wanted to be around people who wanted to get to know my kid.
Funny thing- I didn't even notice or know at the park when I met you. I didn't know until I read your blog. And I haven't said anything because I don't know what to say or it hasn't come up. I hope that doesn't make me insensitive or something. I'm really bad at saying things.
No, it doesn’t make you insensitive or anything – (big laugh) – I mean, it ISN’T a natural sort of conversation filler/topic, “oh hey! yeah… so I was reading on your blog about your daughter…”!!
I wrote this post when Moxie was few months old and I had actually sent emails to people, telling them that she has Ds. And then there was no response and they sort of… dropped out of my life.
It still applies and it’s still relevant in that if people do want to talk about it, I’d rather they say what’s on their minds, or just appreciate her as the kid she is and not some “special” token of “specialness” or whatever… “)
I love this post with all my heart. Because we are all mamas and our children are all special – not 'special'. Thank you for giving people the right words because I DO believe people say nothing for fear of saying the wrong thing. I would really like to feature this post on my blog http:theycallmemummy.com if you'd allow me to. This message can't get spread wide and far enough.
PS – Love her name!
You can email me on yourlifestory@me.com
Hi Meriah,
I really loved this post. Actually tried to comment earlier, but the internet seemingly ate my comment up. Dontcha love that?
I wanted to say that I would really like to feature this post on my blog – http://theycallmemummy.com because it's a message that I believe everyone should read. We are all mamas and our children are all special – not "special".
PS – Love love love Moxie's name.