Down Syndrome Playgroup

Hello Friends,

We will be having a Down Syndrome Playgroup on Tuesday, August 31st, from 10AM intil 12PM.

Please come for some fun playtime and talktime. Michelle L. from Pave and Brigitta C. from A Step Ahead will be joining us.

Please bring your favorite snack to share.

Call me at 253-649-0003 and I will tell you the address. It will be in Gig Harbor, WA.

Moms night out

Just thought I would post about the upcoming moms night out. It is a really good time and great way to connect with other moms and gather resources for our kiddos. The next one is on Wednesday Feb 3rd at 6:00pm at the Olive Garden at South Hill Mall in Puyallup. Post a comment if you would like to attend and we can organize a car pool.

Upcoming event

There is a really great group for Thurston county that meets regularly in Lacey. They are the people that put on the buddy walk. The group is mostly parents of older children, but there are about 5 families with babies too.

Anyway, I know this is short notice, but the meeting tonight is going to be geared toward the families with little ones 3 and under. They will have multiple speakers discussing things pertaining to babies with Down syndrome. Nothing fancy at all, but there might be some good information. It is from 6:30-8 at Parent to Parent in Lacey. Pizza will be served. Here is the address if you are interested.

1012 Homann Drive SE
Lacey, WA 98513
(the building is located behind
Lacey Glass, just east of the
Lacey Post Office at the
round-about)

If you can't make it, I will pass along any good information I receive.

Moms night out

Moms night out is this Friday. I haven't attended in the past, but I have talked to a few parents in the area and a group of us are planning to go...dads too. Should be a good time.

Olive Garden South Hill Puyallup
6:30 p.m. October 9th, 2009

Look how cute we are!

The buddy walk today was a great success...even with a little bit of rain! Thanks everyone for making the trip all the way down to Olympia to participate. Here are a few pictures from today.

Buddy Walk Approaching Soon

Hello Friends,

Buddy Walk is coming soon. It is on Saturday, October 3rd. I thought we could walk together and afterward have a picnic lunch. Registration is online or between 9AM and 10AM. The walk starts at 10AM. Please bring friends and family that you want to come along. This is a family friendly place. Then afterward we will be bringing our own lunch and eating together. We are all a little unfamiliar with the area. Here is my cell phone number 253-678-7772 and we will just meet up with each other that way.

Please make a comment here if you are planning on attending. This way we will know who to look out for.

Welcome to Holland

by Emily Perl KingsleyPrint Version

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this...When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome To Holland".

"Holland?!?" you say, "What do you mean "Holland"??? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy"But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.

The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.So you must go and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.

It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around…and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills...Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy...and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned".And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away...because the loss of that dream is a very significant loss.

But...if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things...about Holland.

© 1987, by Emily Perl Kingsley. All rights reserved.

Reprinted with permission of the author.

I found this adroable story on the National Down Syndrome Congress website. I enjoyed it and wanted to share! We are so thankful for our Holland.