by Whitney Barthel posted in Parenting

March 21 is World Down Syndrome Day and I would like to say we as a society have come a really long way. Well, we have and we haven?t. Let me explain?
Daniel (my little guy with Down syndrome) is now 7, and aside from some mindless and ignorant comments, I have felt like 99 percent of my life involving Down syndrome has been overwhelmingly positive.

In fact, I used to think that with how much support our Down syndrome community receives that we, as advocates, had little more to do. Unfortunately, I had unwittingly surrounded myself with only those who love and support my family -- and others with Down syndrome -- that I created a bubble.
This October, that bubble burst.
To make a very long story not so painfully long, this fall I boarded a plane for California to meet a bunch of strangers and give a short speech on my experience with prenatal genetic testing and being a mother to a child with a genetic condition. So they honest-to-goodness actually have guys in black holding signs with your name at airports. The picture is junky because I was playing it cool and didn't want it to look like I was taking a picture.
Before even agreeing to this engagement I knew there would be at least one person at the event that had chosen a different path than I had. I knew I would for the first time be met with a mother (or several) who had chosen to end pregnancies of babies who would have been just like mine.
I am not going to lie, I was absolute...