have been submitted by people who have been inspired by them while on the journey with a child with Down Syndrome.
Essays/Poems
My face might be different
But my feelings the same
I laugh and I cry
And I take pride in my gains...(continue reading)
Your birth brought us closer
As death lingered near
Your strength as you struggled
Gave flight to our fear...(continue reading)
Blessed are you who take time to listen to difficult speech:
For you help us to know that if we persevere,
We can be understood...(continue reading)
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
inspiration
these essays, poems, and quotes...
Quotes
I hear, I forget.
I see, I remember.
I do, understand!
-- submitted by Pat Oelwein
Blessed are the flexible for they shall not be bent out of shape.
Blessed are those who can laugh at themselves, for they shall never go unamused.
-- submitted by Terry Brown
No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars, or sailed to uncharted land, or opened a new heaven to the human spirit.
-- Helen Keller
(submitted by Terry Brown)
Fairy tales are more than true not because they tell us that dragons exist but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.
-- G.K. Chesterton
Turn your face to the sun and the shadows fall behind you.
-- Maori proverb
What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes
I thank God for my handicaps, for through them, I have found myself, my work and my God.
-- Helen Keller
Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.
-- Robert Brault
Happiness is like a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.
-- Nathaniel Hawthorne
Life does not have to be perfect to be wonderful.
-- Annette Funicello
The only disability in life is a bad attitude.
-- Scott Hamilton
Let’s open doors and minds. Let’s throw a spotlight on the richness that people who are different bring to mainstream society. Let’s talk about assets instead of liabilities.
– Helen Henderson
"Let us declare that we choose inclusion instead of excluding others; expanding acceptance, instead of restricting rejection; love and dialogue, instead of hate!"
-- Archbishop Angel Lagdameo
The secret to true education is respecting the pupil.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Children require guidance and sympathy far more than instruction.
-- Annie Sullivan
Essays/Poems
"It is trisomy 21. It is Down syndrome."
Beyond those words I heard nothing, sitting in the obstetrician's office. The doctor was talking about my unborn daughter, and the results of an amniocentesis...(continue reading)
I hear people say, "I'd rather be dead than like that." Whoever said that, he has his own problems. What I have, I can't get rid of it. I guess I'm not the only person with it. Me, I'm proud. Look at the things I am doing. Others with Down syndrome, they are still hidden away. They don't want to talk about "the label." But I figure I'm pretty much here to stay. As long as I'm around, it's not going to go away...(continue reading)
Most women become mothers by accident, some by choice, a few by social pressures, and a couple by habit. This year, nearly 100,000 women will become mothers of handicapped children. Did you ever wonder how mothers of handicapped children are chosen? Somehow, I visualize God hovering over Earth selecting his instruments for propagation with great care and deliberation...(continue reading)
