In September of 2003, our only son was welcomed into our family.
It only took a few minutes after birth that the Doctor diagnosed Brady with Down syndrome, and right there Brady Bennett made his first splash in this world.
The news was rather shocking to say the least, and many concerns flooded our minds. We were so convinced that something negative had happened. To the point, I wrote a testimonial for the original new parents guide and compared Brady’s birth experience to the actual terrorist attack on 9/11. I look back on that and I have to laugh, but truly the comparison was of similar feelings. Brady’s birthday, 9/9/03, was just a few days before the 2-year anniversary of 9/11, and I guess the memory of how we felt the day of the attacks was still fresh on my mind! For me it was a great sense of fear like never before, then concern for our family, and then just the unknown of what was gonna happen next!! Looking back, I bet my testimony scared some new parents with that comparison, but the truth is that I had the same feelings when we received Brady’s diagnosis.
13 years later, we are continuing to see that Down syndrome is just a diagnosis
We had no time to prepare or educate ourselves, so having a child with special needs was then unknown to us, making us feel the same fear of what this would really mean for us on a day-to-day basis. My question to myself was how is this diagnosis going to affect my family, will I be a great parent for him, and will he have a happy full life? This caused some anxiety for us initially. We quickly moved past these fears with the unconditional love and great joy Brady gave us, and we look back often and think how silly we were.
It is now 13 years later, and having Brady made our family wonderful. We now feel that nothing negative happened at all. Something wonderful definitely did! My family was made better that day. Brady has been an awesome part of this family, and even though he’s our only son, it can’t be much different raising any other boy. He has his own personality with the things he likes and the things he does not like! He loves his family, has his friends that mean the world to him, he can shoot some mean basketball, loves to play board games, bowling, golf, swimming, music, dancing, the beach, loves good food, and if it was up to him, he would eat Mexican every night! He truly enjoys every day to the fullest!
He has sisters older and younger and they play, tease, and live life together as any siblings would. We raise him the same as our girls and expect him to do his best everyday just as we do our girls. He makes us laugh a lot, but like all teenage boys, he can test your patience for sure. It makes us so proud that he’s our son and it warms my heart that his personality is what it is and we love what he brings to our family! Yes, Brady made a splash the day of his birth, but he’s made plenty splashes since. Like any kid, he loves life and we all stumble through together and learn new things and overcome obstacles. That’s just this wonderful life. Our life wouldn’t be the same without the joys and splashes of Brady Bennett!
13 years later, we are continuing to see that Down syndrome is just a diagnosis, but Brady is just our awesome son that we are so wonderfully blessed to have been given!!!
