After a failed round of IVF — Jessica Egan and her husband quickly became ecstatic when they discovered they were pregnant.
But 11 weeks into their journey, a blood test revealed that their future daughter was positive for Trisomy 21 or Down Syndrome.
“At first, we were devastated but it was because we didn’t have any experience with Down syndrome and it was something we were not expecting at all.”
“We grieved very deeply for about three days and then my husband and I decided that we wanted to educate ourselves so that we could be happy and look forward to the birth of our baby.” Jessica shared with Bored Panda.
And that was the moment when things began to shift for the couple.
Both Jessica and her husband contacted their local Down Syndrome foundation and started to educate themselves about the diagnosis that around 1 in every 700 babies are born with.
“Education was the biggest factor in changing our feelings about Down syndrome,” Jessica continued.
“We realized that we simply didn’t understand this diagnosis because we didn’t know anyone with Down syndrome. It is natural to fear things that we don’t know or understand, so we reached out to people in our community that had children with Down syndrome and we made some great connections.”
“We began to see that this truly was nothing to be afraid of and that instead, we were lucky for being chosen to have such a special and unique daughter.”
And after two months raising their daughter, Jessica wrote and posted a “review” of her daughter on Facebook, saying:
“When I placed my order I said, ‘Regular amount of chromosomes, please!’ That’s what everyone else got and what I wanted too. They called me shortly after my order was in production and said ‘Great news, we went ahead and upgraded you to extra chromosomes for free! You’ll receive the extra chromosomes with your completed order in 9 months.’ What?! I was mad!”
“All the other orders I had seen displayed via perfect Instagram posts did NOT have extra chromosomes. Well, I decided that receiving my order with extra chromosomes was better than not receiving an order at all, so I settled in to wait for this surprise upgrade to arrive. I have now had my order for two months and am writing this review to let others know the upgrade to extra chromosomes is amazing!! If offered, definitely take it! I posted some photos below of the finished product and you can see the extra chromosome is so worth it – it is extra cute, extra special, and extra-ordinary! So much extra joy. Would purchase again for sure.”
While the sweet post is well — just that, Jessica and her husband are still learning the ropes when it comes to their daughter’s health.
“One of the biggest challenges so far as a parent is not knowing what to expect as far as growth milestones,” she shared.
“This is our first child, so we don’t have anything to compare it to, but we always still wonder how she’s doing and how she will continue to develop.”
“As of now, however, she is developing extremely well and is very accepted by everyone around her. We also have a big support group of other new parents who have babies with Down syndrome and so we feel very lucky and supported.”
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