"nope . . .nope . . .nope . . .YEP!"

I'm quoting a friend and fellow Ds momma in my title.  A few days ago her facebook status was such:

"The Down Syndrome Community continues to bless me. Tonight while walking down the Grand Haven Pier with 'A' after I dropped the two bigs at Church Kamp, we met an amazing husband and wife who stopped to chat with us! They also have a girl with Ds who is 26. No other community that I know of will sit down with a complete stranger and open up they way we do. They offered lots of stories and laughs. For about 35 min they stayed and chatted. A Ds Momma looks at every childs eye and in her mind says, "nope... nope... nope... YEP!" We look for each other everywhere we go. It isn't always a 35 min chat but often a smile, hug or a wave at least. I get lots of women sharing their stories with me. I truly love all the stories. They keep me going. They let me know I am not alone and to keep going, fighting for everything we are doing for 'A'".

I have recently started a new job.  One thing, among many, that I LOVE about this job is seeing this young woman that comes and works out.  I see her walk by the glass windows of my room as she's walking from the weight room to cardio or to use the bathroom, I see her walk by a couple of times.  She always has water, and a towel, and YEP she has Down syndrome.  I love it.  I love that despite what doctors are going to tell you, what genetic counselors are going to say, despite what the world in general thinks should happen to fetuses with one extra 21st chromosome people with Ds are more like someone without the one extra chromosome than different.  It also gives me hope for Doc.  When I'm holding Doc and she walks by, I whisper to him "see, don't believe what people are going to say about you, if you want to come and workout at the gym you can."

Last week I worked the morning shift and signed up for the evening shift too since hubby was out of town and the kids and I didn't have much else planned.  But instead of driving home for a few hours we decided to have a picnic at Meijer Gardens.  I packed lunches and planned on just buying a snack or dinner (depending on hunger level prior to reporting back to work) but as "chance" would have it I missed my exit and on finding my way to the Gardens by way of a different route we passed a McD's with a playland.  Now, I don't know about you but my kids love to eat at McD's, especially if there's a playland - and they love exploring new ones so I decided we'd stop for lunch and save our packed pb/j's for dinner.  The kids hadn't finished long before a mother and son came in with their lunch tray in hand.  I sort of noticed the boy, and thought just maybe he had Ds too.  It was actually very hard to tell, the reason my interest peaked was the way he was so flexible as he sat down to take his shoes off and put on socks.  I didn't see distinct almond-shaped eyes like Doc and he ran around the playland just like all the other kids and sat down at the table for breaks to sip on his soda and eat his happy meal.  But I eventually decided that YEP, he's like my boy!  And like most in the Ds community his mother stopped by my table to take a peek at Matthew and confirmed my suspicions.  It was a blessing to my heart - the little "hello" from one understanding mom to another and to see the cute guy running around crazy like the rest of the kids there.

Doc has potential.  Lots of it.  LOTS.  "Don't Dis (his) Ability."