“Surreal” is the only word that I can think of to describe the initial discovery of Colt’s diagnosis. I don’t know if it’s a good word, but we were surprised, not sad or upset. We knew that God does not make mistakes and we loved individuals with Down syndrome but also knew nothing about it.

It took about 10 days for lab confirmation of the diagnosis that we already knew. During this time, we explained to our children that God had knit an extra chromosome in every one of Colt’s cells, called Down syndrome. If you have followed me long, you have probably heard that this big sister went running out our back door screaming and crying, “he does not have Down syndrome!”

She had absolutely no idea what Down syndrome was and had only seen us react with happiness about it but it sounded scary and she didn’t want anything that was different for her baby brother.

I think that’s how many adults react. The unknown can be scary but it doesn’t mean that it is bad, as she quickly learned. All of my children have loved Colt as Colt from the beginning. Down syndrome might have been a scary name but they realized that it really meant nothing in defining who he was. He was just their adorable brother who they loved.

My sister is one of the few people that I told at the very first moment we began to suspect Colt’s Down syndrome. She arrived at our house shortly after with a meal and two “Am I Rockin’ this Extra Chromosome or What?” onesies.😊

This was how I hoped everyone would respond. I dreaded the thought of someone saying, “I’m sorry” about our beautiful baby boy that we celebrated. With the exception of a close few, we didn’t share the news until we received the final confirmation.

***Announcing Colt in next post Part 4***