Taryn and Rhea

When women are little girls, many of us dream up the perfect wedding and the perfect family. We don't just imagine these things broadly, we tend to incorporate every detail - what that wedding dress might look like, what our house will look like and what color hair our kids will have.

I would imagine that nowhere in that detail does a little girl say "I want one of my kids to have Down syndrome." I certainly didn’t. We have been conditioned to see our hopes and dreams in specific ways. So when someone says, "your baby has Down syndrome," for many people that perfect picture you dreamt up in your mind changes.

When I got my daughter's diagnosis, I knew in that moment our family had forever changed. In those early days, those changes felt big, emotional and even bad.

Over time, I thought about what I love about all of my girls, and its their uniqueness. Each of their individual personalities make up our family - our differences are what make us laugh, love and smile more. None of us look exactly the same, we all have our own challenges and we all bring something different to our family. I realized with confidence that Rhea‘s differences would be what enrich our life, whether some of those differences came with hard or heavy things sometimes.

That picture I dreamed up in my mind as a little girl is more perfect than ever. Rhea was meant to be a part of my life, and I'm so grateful that she is.

Taryn of @mindfullytaryn