This is My Little Princess. Olivia. She was born in 2012. She changed our lives the second she came out to this world. It wasn’t so much the diagnosis of Down syndrome that changed our lives, but just having her, Olivia, is what changed our lives. She was our first child, so no matter what, we really had no idea what to expect.
The diagnosis was tough. The screening markers were all essentially negative, although I know that the markers only convey risk and are not to be taken as positive versus negative, but the “risk,” of DS was low enough that it never crossed our minds. We found out when she was born. It was a difficult time, but we had a new baby to take care of, so there was little time for tears, as we needed more time to put together the bassinet and educate ourselves about the diagnosis.
Olivia is 2 ½ now. We have been very fortunate that she has had no organ issues or any other major problems that many children with DS have. She has physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, and we are all involved with classes/information programs at the Intervention Center for Early Childhood. Programs like that have been invaluable to our family.
Olivia works hard, but she has fun. She likes to go swimming and loves her bike rides. When she giggles it is the giggle of a young child, it is pure. There are days that are difficult, but I am told that is what children do, so we take it in stride. There are days that are fantastic, days that you would almost wish just kept playing over and over on an endless loop, but if that happened, then we would miss out on tomorrow. And tomorrow is always full of exciting things for Olivia and our family. It might be scary to think of what the future holds, but it can also be very exciting. In her little life so far, she has already made me and her mommy proud, and we can’t wait to see what is next.