I have a few posts in the pipeline, but we’ve had a bit of excitement this weekend that I wanted to share with you. About a month ago, we were asked to be involved in an article on Down syndrome due to appear in a magazine called ‘qweekend’ which is inserted into our state’s newspaper, the Courier Mail, on a Saturday.
The journalist, Leisa Scott, arrived on our doorstep a few weeks later and we had a fairly relaxed chat about our journey with Down syndrome so far, specifically focusing on our prenatal diagnosis…and, somehow, Leisa managed to make sense of all my ramblings. Nicholas was wide awake when Leisa arrived, but had fallen asleep on my shoulder by the time the photographer, Russell Shakespeare, arrived and set up. Russell took some shots of Nicholas asleep on my shoulder, but startled by all the flashes, Nicholas woke up so Russell managed to get a few of him awake as well.
I was feeling rather nervous about the article appearing and it didn’t help the nerves when a friend sent me a text message on Friday saying that she’d seen a preview for the coming weekend’s edition of qweekend and spotted Nicholas on the cover! Eek. We had no idea his photo would appear on the cover. Needless to say, I was beating down the door of the corner store early on Saturday morning to buy the paper – and there was my beautiful, blue-eyed boy staring back at me. I walked home along our street, reading the article with tears in my eyes.
We are very thankful to all the families who shared their stories, and to Leisa Scott for weaving them together in a wonderful, positive article about Down syndrome. Russell Shakespeare took some amazing photos which we will treasure. We have been overwhelmed by all the positive feedback, emails, phone calls, and messages we have received in the past 48 hours, so thank you for reading and spreading the word. I would also personally like to thank my beloved husband for sharing in all of the ups and downs of this love story with me and our three gorgeous boys.
Nicholas seems to be fairly unfazed by all his new-found fame 😉
As promised, click on The Chosen Ones to download a PDF version of the physical article which appeared in the 9 March edition of qweekend. It is rather large and has just been scanned on our little home scanner, so apologies for the quality!
For an excerpt of the story, you can read the online version here.
This photo is stunning! I’m off to read the article now!
Oh my, the picture of you and Nicholas brought tears to my eyes. Such love!!
Thanks Laura. We thought it was lovely. I’ll have to work out how I can buy it from the magazine! Definitely a framer x
It was a fabulous story and a breathtaking photo on the cover. I am keeping the article to share with my year 8s in an upcoming unit. Thank you for sharing and all the very best for your family.
Thanks Alicia. The article has certainly raised some interesting discussion. I hope it gives the year 8s something to think about too! Thanks for sharing it with them x
oh my word, he is the epitome of “adorable!” What a little man! He’s gonna go places:-) xoxo
Thank you, we think he’s pretty cute 😉 Very proud of our gorgeous boy. Thanks for saying hi x
wow what an amazing article..thank you so much for sharing your story…it really makes you think.ox
Thank you for leaving a comment. We were really happy with the article and I do think it has got a lot of people thinking, which is great. I definitely think there are pros to prenatal testing, but people who receive a prenatal diagnosis also need to be given appropriate support, rather than just being told all the negatives. We can’t imagine life without our gorgeous boy x
Oh, this is amazing! Such a handsome little man! I do hope that, one day, our boys will have the opportunity to meet. xo
Thank you Angela! I hope they get to meet too. Love seeing your beautiful kids on my IG feed. You guys are good travellers – maybe your next adventure can be to Australia 😉 x