Donate Through Sara’s 3/21 Pledge Page Here! (Link coming soon!)
Donate Through Sara’s 3/21 Pledge Page Here! (Link coming soon!)Hi! My name is Sara and I live in Austin, Texas, with my husband Philip and our 3 beautiful kiddos Neil (7), Nora (5) and Cleo (2). As a family we love gardening, cooking, camping, board games and breakfast tacos. Prior to staying at home with my kiddos, I worked in an elementary school here in Austin as a licensed clinical social worker. Now at home, my days are busy reading to my babes and folding endless baskets of laundry. HA!
This past year, my friend (another mother of a child with Down syndrome) and I created Able Appetites to support parents in transitioning their child with Ds from breast, bottle, or tube to solid food. I LOVE this opportunity to connect with so many families and celebrate how capable our kiddos are.
During my third pregnancy, we opted to take a non-invasive pregnancy test to find out the gender of our baby early. Our OBGYN called us to share the news that our baby was a girl and then, in the next breath, that she would likely have an extra copy of her 21st chromosome. What did this mean!? Everything I Googled Scared. Me. To. Death. We were referred to a Maternal Fetal Medicine Specialist who truly terrified us. We felt pressured to terminate our baby even though we very much wanted her. We were told that Down syndrome was scary and that we would be adding a burden to our lives, our children’s lives, and to our community. We left his office without being offered so much as a pamphlet about Down syndrome, much less local connections and resources.
A friend of a friend told me about this woman she knew with a daughter named Ruby. How lucky am I that the first person I got to talk to about being a parent of a child with Down syndrome was LIZ!?! All of that fear, doom and gloom was countered by her enthusiasm, excitement, and contagious JOY. Did I continue to dwell in some fear and uncertainty during the rest of my pregnancy? I did, but Liz and Ruby’s Rainbow gave me hope. It was such a different narrative of Down syndrome, focused on capability rather than limitation. This is a narrative we want to help spread, and so I am SO thrilled to be a part of the 3/21 committee!