On May 12th, 1997 Jessica Mary Miller was born, 6 pounds even. After 3 1/2 hours of a very hard labour and 5 minutes of waiting to see our little girl the doctor finally brought her over and placed our little bundle of joy in my arms. Then the wonderful doctor who helped bring Jessica into our world, placed her hand on my shoulder and proceeded to say," your daughter has ;" and before she could say anything else, I said," Down Syndrome". Don't ask me how I knew this I just did. My husband and I didn't know that we were going to have a child with DS. We were shocked and saddened at the same time, but that wasn't all the surprises. After they checked Jessica over, and ran tests, the doctor then returned with some more news. They discovered she has two small holes in her heart....But after Jessica had an echo cardiogram done they discovered that the two holes were actually one very large hole..A V S D they called it (Atrioventricular Septcal Defect), and had to be repaired when she get a little stronger.
After three long and stressful months and numerous trips to the doctors in Peterborough and Toronto Hospital For Sick Kids Jessica had open heart surgery.
Now at 2 1/2 years old Jess is doing great. She is a very happy outgoing child. She still needs to have more surgery, but nothing in the near future. Jessica receives, physical , speech,and occupational therapies at 5 Counties in Peterborough. She was receiving Infant Stim from the Health centre by a wonderful lady , Margret Johnson Jones. Now Jess has graduated to a Resource teacher.
With the help and support of C.H.A.N.G.E.S (Children and Adults for Normalization, Growth, Equality and Socialization), they opened our eyes to see that we are not alone. There are people and places out in our own community that will help Jessica build her confidence and to become an independent person . Except for her appearance and being a little slow she is a child that needs the love, support, and acceptance in the community we call home.
Since Jessica's birth, my husband ,our 4 year old daughter and I look at life allot differently now. There will be many battles to fight in our society. With the love and support of many people, we will be able to over come the various obstacles we will be facing.
We have had people say to us," Special children are given to very special people", and " God doesn't give us for which we can't handle". This maybe true but you all have special lives to live, and I think most handle life well.
Down Syndrome Awareness Week is November 1-7th, please take a minute to meet some of the children and their families and see what C.H.A.N.G.E.S is all about.