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We are happy to announce that Be Not Afraid is now Be Not Afraid Inc, a tax-exempt, non-profit corporation. Donations can be made payable to Be Not Afraid and mailed to 8800 Glenside Street, Huntersville, NC 28078. We will have a credit card donation option available soon.
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Benotafraid.net is an online outreach to parents who have received a poor or difficult prenatal diagnosis. The family stories, articles, and links within this site are presented as a resource for those who may have been asked to choose between terminating a pregnancy or continuing on despite the diagnosis. The benotafraid.net families faced the same decision and chose not to terminate. By sharing our experiences, we hope to offer encouragement to those who may be afraid to continue on.
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Our Trisomy 21 World |
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by Diane |
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My daughter was born on March 17. As Irish Catholics, this was the luck of the Irish to have such a date for a child to be born. However, our luck would be a different kind of luck than we expected. It would be hidden in a blessing that we were not quite expecting. On this St. Patrick's day, we would learn what it is like to have a child born with Trisomy 21.
Emmy was diagnosed at birth, by a cluster of features that are seen on children with Trisomy 21. This would be the beginning of a whole new life for all of us. The minute we heard she had Down syndrome, we knew we would be different people.
Ironically, we became different people alright, only not the people we thought we would become. We pictured ourselves slowed down by a child who would learn slower than our other children. This is not at all what came to be. Emmy has shown the world that she has her own timeline. It may not be the same as others, but it is just as amazing!
We read all about all of the things Emmy would not do. We heard from specialists how hard it would be. The one thing they could not tell us, was the amount of joy we would experience. They could not know this, as most had never raised a child with Down syndrome. They were giving us information that they had aquired from their books becoming the professionals they are today. The real stuff, what it really is like, was missing from their dialogue with us. We turned to others who would help us to understand what it would be like. This helped tremendously. We would learn that it is not much different than any parenting we had done with our typical children.
And so the journey began, of us trying to advocate for our little girl, and teaching others that we believe in her, and now could they please believe in her. Along the way, we got plenty of calls from new parents, asking us for help. We realized that although there were many wonderful publications out there about the journey of Down syndrome, not many of them touched upon it from a Catholic perspective.
So, we joined together with other parents who are Catholic, and journeying down the road of Trisomy 21. We are parents from all over the world. We want to share with you the love and the joy we have for our beautiful children. We hope you will take some time to come on over to our site, Hidden Treasures, The Trisomy 21 Journey and meet our children. We think that you will be pleasantly surprised to meet them. And along the way, you will be charmed by our little darlings, who are sporting just a little extra!
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by
Tiffany and Wes
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“I think so”, those three words changed our lives forever. I remember lying there looking at our precious baby for the first time at our 20 week ultrasound and thanking God for this little miracle growing within me. At the end of the ultrasound I asked “So everything is good?” The reply I received was a simple three words “I think so”. It was those three words that I will always remember as I knew at that moment something wasn’t quite right.
A few days later I received a call from my ob stating that a Dandy Walker malformation and choroids cyst were seen on the ultrasound. She sent us in for further testing, naively we figured they would tell us that everything was okay and send us on our way. In the hours that followed, we were left exhausted, terrified, and unsure of what was to come. Our baby was diagnosed with a Dandy-Walker...
read the rest
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