Jaymi-Down Syndrome

Jaymi was born in Russia and given up by her birth parents because of her diagnosis and sent to live out her life in an orphanage.  The doctors told her very young mother that she was severely disabled and would require medical care that they could not provide.  Those doctors could not have been more wrong.  Having a diagnosis of Down syndrome does not mean that a child will automatically require extensive medical treatment or that they will be severely disabled.  Jaymi is a very healthy little girl and very bright and capable.  She has been home with our family for just 10 short months and already understands English and can say many words and uses a number of signs to communicate.  She attends kindergarten and is learning her colors, numbers, letters and shapes.  She attends a regular dance class and memorized and performed her dance, just like the other girls in her class.  She rides horses, takes gymnastics, plays soccer, dresses and feeds herself, is potty trained and many other things.  She is absolutely thriving in a family and enjoys everything about life.

Shortly after coming home our pediatrician ran a number of lab tests to see if her immunizations were up to date and to make sure she didn’t have any diseases.  Everything came back clear.  She has seen a cardiologist, audiologist, vision screening and ENT.  Everything looked good with all of these specialists.  She has only had two sicknesses since being home and of course the chronic stuff nose that many children with Ds have.

Currently Jaymi is on medication to treat her hypothyroidism.  She also attends private speech therapy once a week.  We don’t have very much information on the first five years of her life while she was in Russia.  We do know that she was hospitalized a few times for respiratory viruses and had surgery on a hiatal hernia.

As Jaymi’s caregiver our biggest struggle over the past year has been overcoming the language barrier and bonding and attachment.  Jaymi seemed to do so well coming into our family and home and has accepted us as her parents and primary caregivers.  It was harder than we expected as her parents to feel attached and bonded to her.  This is something that continues to get better through time and experience.  As her language has come along it has helped immensely with the frustrations we all faced of not being able to communicate effectively.

 

We have very high hopes and expectations for Jaymi’s life and future.  We would love to see her be able to attend and learn in a regular classroom with her peers for most of the day.  She is a very helpful little girl and would make a great employee some day.  The possibilities are endless and we just want to support her in whatever she wants to do.  She loves to dance, play sports and swim and so we will continue to help her do these activities and stay active and healthy throughout her life.

So far we haven’t had any issues with Jaymi’s education.  She currently attends a diagnostic kindergarten in Jordan School District.  We are very happy with her placement this year.  It has been a wonderful place for her to be introduced to the education setting.  Her teachers are awesome and spend a lot of time and energy on teaching the children appropriate behavior skills for school.  I have been able to volunteer weekly in Jaymi’s class and have been so impressed by what I have seen.  Jaymi absolutely loves school and adores her teachers, classmates and bus driver.  She is so excited to wake up and go to school every morning.  We hope that she will continue to have such a great experience in her education and always enjoy attending school and learning.

Having Jaymi join our family has not always been easy as it has stretched our parenting skills and patience to the max.  However it has been a huge blessing to our family and we have learned many important lessons that will help us be better parents in the future.  Jaymi’s love for life is infectious and has taught us all to appreciation and enjoy the little things.  She is very social and loves others unconditionally.  She loves making friends and making others feel special.  She is a very happy little girl and wants so badly to be loved and accepted by those around her.  We look forward to the many years to come with Jaymi in our family.