by Sandra

Hi, my name is Sandra.

I am a mother of two children. One is 14 years old and her name is Joanne. She is a freshman in High School who loves boba milk tea and is an awesome older sister to her brother. The other is Nathan, who is 11 years old and a 5th grader who loves connecting with people, has a great sense of humor and loves Legos. They complete our family of four and we love exploring life together.

Let me introduce ourselves. This is my husband, Johnson, myself, Joanne and Nathan.

Our youngest, Nathan, happens to have a disability. We received a prenatal diagnosis that he was going to be born with Down syndrome, a genetic condition characterized by full or partial extra copy of chromosome 21. Down syndrome is the most common genetic condition. It affects all races, religions and economic backgrounds. Trisomy 21 causes developmental and intellectual delays.

It was an unexpected revelation to us. We came to embrace it after the natural initial shock, which came because we didn’t know anything about Down syndrome and what the future would look like for our son.

We reflected on these Bible verse many times after receiving his diagnosis:

“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praised you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” Psalm 139:13-14

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11

With that in our hearts, we took a leap of faith to create a vision full of possibilities for our son.

Over the years, we’ve learned that we could and should have hopes and dreams for both of our children. The support in place might look a bit different, but don’t they all look different for all of our kids?

For Nathan, what can look different is the fact that things take more time, effort and practice for him to learn, and support might be needed until he feels more confident and independent with the skills he acquires.

Our parenting is not about performance or something to brag about, but about a shift in mindset so that we can renew our expectations, find opportunities and provide Nathan risks for him to attempt with dignity. The result is a change in the perspective of what can be.

With all our hopes and dreams, we could absolutely not surpass the biggest hope and dream of all, which is to see Nathan to learn and grow in his love for God, and for him to understand the meaning of communion, the broken body of Christ and the blood Christ shed for us.

So our discipleship for Nathan is for him to learn about God’s Grace and God’s love, for Nathan to know that God loves him so much and has a special plan and purpose for his life. We have faith that one day, he too will desire to ask Jesus into his life, to be his Lord and Savior and to be baptized.

I have to humbly acknowledge that we cannot do this alone. Thank you Church School and Staff for shepherding Nathan.

One way you can help us in our discipleship of Nathan, is to feel comfortable around him, get to know him, pray for him, mentor him and see him as a part of the body of Christ.

Here is a video that captures a vision for what discipleship in our church can look like in this young man’s testimony and baptism. His name is Ryan:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocIwGXf2L80