Getting DOWN to Joining UP!

My husband and I finally did it . . . . . we finally got DOWN to business and Joined up with a local Down Syndrome Parent Group.  They call it a support group, but I would much rather call it a Parent Group because "Support" makes it sound like we need therapy because our daughter has Down Syndrome.  Just the opposite, we have found being the parents of a child with Down Syndrome has been an amazing blessing and joy, and Rachel is just the happiest little baby almost all of the time.

We finally made the decision to attend the Down Syndrome Parent Group, because we felt we wanted to get feedback from other parents on what the next few years might be like as we begin to think about preschool for Rachel.  At first my husband was going to let me attend alone while he stayed home with the kids, but we are lucky enough that our group offers childcare and he thought he would give attending the meetings a try.  To his joy, he met another father at the group and fellow brother Marine (once a Marine always a Marine) and the meeting wasn't a circle of woman crying over their children (he really thought that was what the DS parent group was going to be).

It was the first meeting for the year, so we really spent the first night just sharing stories on how we each found out our little one had DS, was it while we were pregnant OR did we find out the day of delivery (as in our case).  Then David and I asked a few questions of two of the couples because they each had daughters 3 years old, so their daughters are just a bit ahead of Rachel and had great advice for what is around the corner developmentally.  Finally we spent the last part of the evening planning out the topics we really want to learn about as a group and the special speakers we wanted to bring in to help us with those topics.

We truly felt blessed and like we had found a new group of friends . . . . . most of all we felt comfortable RIGHT A WAY!  You can find us on Facebook New Bern Down Syndrome Parent Group.  This is a closed group for parents, family, and friends of children with DS in the New Bern and surrounding area of Eastern North Carolina, if you feel you meet that criteria please contact me to join our FB group.

(I made this logo for our group)