ABBY

PHOTO BY RANDY BACON

ABBY

“I Love My Life”

I am twenty-two years old. I am older than I look and many times when I go out to eat, the hostess will hand me a kid’s menu. I do not like that, I am not a kid, I am an adult! Since I graduated from high school when I was eighteen, I have been working four days a week at the Workshop and once a week I go to my old high school to help the school secretary with office work. I love my jobs and having my own money to buy clothes, shoes, or whatever I want.

I have five siblings and I love when my sister comes to visit or lets me come and stay at her house for the weekend. We have a lot of fun together eating out and going shopping. My youngest sister is adopted from China and she has Down Syndrome like me. I help my parents take care of Lily.

The best day of my life was when I was crowned the football homecoming queen when I was a senior in high school. It was such a special day that one of the news stations came and interviewed me and the ceremony was on the news that night.I have a boyfriend and someday I want to get married. I also want to go to college in New York City. Some days I want to be a teacher, other days I want to be a doctor. My parents tell me I have to save up a lot of money if I want to go to college far away. Until then, I’m enjoying my life and my family. I love my life!

RAMONDA (ABBY’S MOM)

We didn’t do the prenatal testing because the results would not have changed whether we allowed our babyto grow until full-term or not. But as a thirty-one year old mother of five, it was shocking to find out that our precious baby had a diagnosis of Down Syndrome. That night, I lay in my hospital bed with my sweet baby sleeping beside me and grieved the loss of all we had hoped and dreamed for our baby. I wondered if she would ever have any friends, would other kids invite her to their parties or to spend the night at their house? Would she ever graduate high school, ever get married? Who would take care of her after we are gone? I often cried for the first two weeks after her birth. These were the thoughts that are normal for the grieving process, but in hind-sight, I think these questions were brought to mind by a culture that doesn’t place enough faith in the abilities of those “differently-abled” to achieve their dreams.

Abby has the same hopes and dreams that other young women have. While it took a little longer to achieve milestones, she has achieved much in her twenty-two years. She is very proud of her work, has more work ethic than other “typical” persons we know. Sweet Abby also has the hope and dream of becoming married. We can see this happening someday.

To know Abby is to love and enjoy her. She is oblivious to the bad in the world and only sees the good in other people. We enjoyed raising Abby so much that our family decided to adopt a sister for Abby who also has Down Syndrome. Abby is her sister’s other mother. She takes her role of older sister very seriously, whether Lily likes it or not. One of Abby’s sisters purchased her a coffee mug for her birthday this year that says “Queen of Everything” on it. This sums up Abby’s personality perfectly because she does believe she is the queen of everything!