![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/113\/2011\/03\/IMG_6526-300x225.jpg\")
<\/a>March 21, or 3\/21. It is snowing outside. I look out the window and think back to a long, cold, stuck-inside winter, and yet I look at the calendar and notice that it is the first day of spring. The daffodils are already on display in my grandmother\u2019s garden, on view from my kitchen window. Despite the cup of hot tea on my desk and the wool sweater around my shoulders, I know that buds on the trees, birds\u2019 nests, and trips to the playground are in store. Soon. The reality of the calendar overcomes the reality of the weather.
\nMarch 21, or 3\/21. It is also World Down Syndrome Day, a day that plays on the biology of Down syndrome, the presence of a third 21st chromosome. Every day I receive a \u201cgoogle alert\u201d with news stories from around the globe that contain the words \u201cDown syndrome.\u201d Every day I see signs of a long, cold winter in those stories\u2014the abuse of children and adults with Down syndrome, the legislator from New Hampshire who suggested recently that people with disabilities should be shipped to Siberia, the scientists who champion \u201ceradicating\u201d the \u201cdisease\u201d of Down syndrome via prenatal testing (i.e. via abortion). And every day I see the signs of spring.
\nThese signs of spring tend to come as stories\u2014stories of young men and women enrolled in community colleges, working as nurses and teachers\u2019 aids, stories of homecoming kings and queens, tributes to community members. Part of the purpose of this blog is to tell our story, the story of a family with a little girl with Down syndrome, with parents who celebrate because Penny just took her shirt off all by herself for the first time, with a brother who says, \u201ccan I have a sleepover with Penny tonight?\u201d and a baby sister who is still learning the role her older siblings will play as she grows up. Today, Penny sat with Marilee on her lap and told her all the things she would be able to do: \u201cYou\u2019ll be able to talk, Marilee. And walk. And run. And eat!\u201d Yes, our oldest daughter has Down syndrome. And yet in so many ways, ours is just a story of a family.
\nEach of the millions of individuals with Down syndrome, and each of the friends and family members who love them, have stories to tell. Very few of their stories focus upon health concerns or cognitive delays. Very few of them say anything about Down syndrome in the abstract. Almost all of their stories will be like ours\u2014particular moments of triumph and heartbreak, rejection and bigotry, inclusion and purpose.
\nLike the daffodils blazing yellow on this cold, gray day, may the rejection and disdain towards people with Down syndrome be overcome by the stories of hope and love and joy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(First, a quick blog update: I’m sorry to have been MIA this week. Beliefnet was changing our blogging platform and they forgot to include me. It took a few days to figure out, but now I’m back…) And here’s what I had hoped to post on Monday: March 21, or 3\/21. It is snowing outside.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,1,6],"tags":[9],"class_list":["post-578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-disability","category-down-syndrome","category-family","tag-world-down-syndrome-day"],"yoast_head":"\n
Happy Belated World Down Syndrome Day! - Thin Places<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/03\/happy-belated-world-down-syndrome-day.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Happy Belated World Down Syndrome Day! - Thin Places\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"(First, a quick blog update: I’m sorry to have been MIA this week. Beliefnet was changing our blogging platform and they forgot to include me. It took a few days to figure out, but now I’m back…) And here’s what I had hoped to post on Monday: March 21, or 3\/21. 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Beliefnet was changing our blogging platform and they forgot to include me. It took a few days to figure out, but now I’m back…) And here’s what I had hoped to post on Monday: March 21, or 3\/21. It is snowing outside.…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/03\/happy-belated-world-down-syndrome-day.html","og_site_name":"Thin Places","article_published_time":"2011-03-23T18:22:14+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thinplaces\/files\/2011\/03\/IMG_6526-300x225.jpg"}],"author":"amyjuliabecker","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/03\/happy-belated-world-down-syndrome-day.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/03\/happy-belated-world-down-syndrome-day.html","name":"Happy Belated World Down Syndrome Day! - Thin Places","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/03\/happy-belated-world-down-syndrome-day.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/03\/happy-belated-world-down-syndrome-day.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thinplaces\/files\/2011\/03\/IMG_6526-300x225.jpg","datePublished":"2011-03-23T18:22:14+00:00","dateModified":"2011-03-23T18:22:14+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#\/schema\/person\/4dde10eee38770361dc9b46a9413776b"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/03\/happy-belated-world-down-syndrome-day.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/03\/happy-belated-world-down-syndrome-day.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/03\/happy-belated-world-down-syndrome-day.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thinplaces\/files\/2011\/03\/IMG_6526-300x225.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thinplaces\/files\/2011\/03\/IMG_6526-300x225.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/03\/happy-belated-world-down-syndrome-day.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Happy Belated World Down Syndrome Day!"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/","name":"Thin Places","description":"Amy Julia Becker on Faith, Family, and Disability","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#\/schema\/person\/4dde10eee38770361dc9b46a9413776b","name":"amyjuliabecker","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/222\/2222023dcae76abe6e896a3cf80e9836x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/222\/2222023dcae76abe6e896a3cf80e9836x96.jpg","caption":"amyjuliabecker"},"description":"Amy Julia Becker writes about theology, disability, family, and culture. Two major life experiences have shaped her writing and her faith\u00e2\u20ac\u201dcaring for her mother-in-law as she battled cancer and welcoming her daughter Penny into the world after she was diagnosed at birth with Down syndrome. Both experiences expanded and enriched her understanding of what it means to be human and to receive each and every person as a gift.\u00c2\u00a0 A graduate of Princeton University and Princeton Theological Seminary, she is the author of Penelope Ayers: A Memoir, and the forthcoming A Good and Perfect Gift (Bethany House). Her essays have appeared in First Things, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Christian Century, ChristianityToday.com, and Bloom, among other online venues.","sameAs":["http:\/\/amyjuliabecker.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/author\/amyjuliabecker"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=578"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":582,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578\/revisions\/582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thinplaces\/files\/2011\/03\/IMG_6526.jpg\")
<\/a>March 21, or 3\/21. It is snowing outside. I look out the window and think back to a long, cold, stuck-inside winter, and yet I look at the calendar and notice that it is the first day of spring. The daffodils are already on display in my grandmother\u2019s garden, on view from my kitchen window. Despite the cup of hot tea on my desk and the wool sweater around my shoulders, I know that buds on the trees, birds\u2019 nests, and trips to the playground are in store. Soon. The reality of the calendar overcomes the reality of the weather.