{Summer Rose holding baby Spencer/Summer Rose today with her sister, Misty}

Since it is World Down Syndrome Awareness Day I will tell you this story.

I met Martha in New Hampshire when we were 17. Best friends forever the moment we met.  We did everything together. In 1994 we each had one baby and were due with our second.

I was excited and a wee bit apprehensive that night, 19 years ago, as I drove over to witness Summer’s birth.  Excited to be there for my best friend, to see her baby, to attend a birth for the first time, a home birth at that.  Apprehensive because I didn’t know how it would go, I didn’t know if I would know how to comfort her, because I huge and pregnant with my secondborn and was planning home birth and I was next.  It was the middle of the night and the sleeping countryside was illuminated by a full moon. I decided then that it must be true what they say about full moons and labor.

Summer was born at Martha’s sister’s house. It was a hard and quiet labor and while her sister comforted her I just stood by, helpless. The birth was very painful due to no amniotic fluid and I remember looking at the midwife and telling her “I can’t do this home birth thing” . She told me that they usually aren’t this bad.

Suddenly it was over and there was this tiny baby lying on the bed, feebly mewling, rooting. She looked so fragile and frail. Something wasn’t right, but I wasn’t sure what. The room was very quiet. Hushed, uncertain.

The midwife knew. Martha knew, too, but was still reeling from the birth. Shocked and in denial, I think. Fearing the unknown. I watched her tune everything out, traumatized.

Then the bustling started. Phone calls. Clean up. Plans to go to the hospital.  Amidst it all I sat in the living room holding Summer. She was so precious and delicate and I was terrified that she would take her last breath right there in my arms.

The next days, weeks and months were spent at the hospital. It didn’t take Martha long to snap out of her shock.  She lived at the hospital and wouldn’t leave Summer’s side.  It was a grueling time of pumping breastmilk, meetings with doctors, trying to get Summer to eat, and cribside vigil.  There was open-heart surgery and stomach surgery.

Since then Martha has championed her cause, devoting her life to better Summer’s life.  Summer’s siblings are a beautiful example of acceptance and love, devoting their lives too.

and Summer Rose

is such a blessing. We wouldn’t change a thing about who she is. She loves and lives without reservation. One moment stands out.  We were all at the lake.  There was a man that couldn’t walk and he laboriously dragged himself to the edge of the water to go for a swim. We all sat quiet, sympathetic.  Summer stood on the shore watching intently and when the man finally pulled himself back up on the sand she toddled over and tenderly wrapped her little arms around his neck and gently laid her cheek on his.

It was the sweetest moment ever.