Gov. Palin and A Child with Down Syndrome in the Vice Presidential House

I received a question: How good was it to have a Child with Down Syndrome on the Stage at Gov. Sarah Palin's announcement that Senator John McCain asked her to run as his Vice President?

Here is my take on it: Every child is unique. Our Matthew will be 5 on September 17th. He had open heart surgery at 14 days old along with a staph infection and has had several issues of pneumonia over his short life....Large crowds of people and a great deal of love and energy thrills him and always has from the very beginning. I remember after the heart surgery and he had a staph infection. The doctors could not tell us if he would survive. He was in medication induced coma while the infection was being sucked from the tissues in his body. All we had for four days was monitors.

His numbers would go down when it was still. He would often not respond as well to pain meds when Karen and I or other family was away from him. So, we stepped into action. We had family there around the clock. Karen would read scripture and we would pray together aloud. We played praise music and a personalized CD with songs that Granny brought. I even read out loud the entire book of Charlie and Chocolate Factory to Matthew. What was supposed to be a week long procedure was over in four days. When Matthew returned from surgery, the infection was gone and he was alert. It was awesome to see those blue eyes again.

Since then, Matthew has become even more social and LARGE event oriented. He loves church, he loves school, he loves Walmart, and he loves people. In fact, Mike and Cathy Canny invited us to a Beetles Impersonators concert last night at the Conner Prairie with almost 9000 people on lawn chairs and blankets and Matthew soaked up every minute. Thus, Matthew is our official Walmart Greeter....this could be his life goal....he is definitely gifted at it.

I am not saying every child with Down Syndrome is the same...I do think it would be prudent to cut the parents some slack and let them know what is best for Trig. Most children take after their parents and Matthew has talkative parents, so it seems is you know Karen and I, Matthew did not have a chance in the lack of talkative genes (or chromosomes).

I still am excited with the advocacy we might all share with a Child with Down Syndrome in the Vice Presidential Mansion. Isn't it exciting to see the prospect that the world might see the value in every life.

Comments always welcome...Have a great Labor Day!
Don