Family that embraces daughter is great gift

by Hellen Middlebrook from Pacific Daily News:
For most of us, friends are a normal part of life. But what if your life isn't normal? And what if you aren't?
Deborah, our daughter with Down syndrome, has been growing up without friends. I know this is not the case for every child with disabilities; those who go to school usually experience some level of friendship. Deborah has been in similar settings, but these have not been enough to cultivate friendships.
In her almost 15 years, I've watched Deborah be patronized by adults and rejected by her peers. Adults often treat her as if she's a teddy bear -- something to hug and say nice things at. Very rarely do adults actually talk with her.
With the exception of one young lady who has left the island, those of her own generation have ignored her. If they do see her, they don't acknowledge her. Deborah has never been invited to a birthday party or an outing. But she has been told to "go inside" when others have been outside playing.
Such things are hard on a mother's heart.
I know it can be difficult to understand her; I know it's also difficult for her to keep up with a conversation. And I know if she is ever to have friends, it's up to me to create the situations to foster friendships.

Miss You Can Do It Pageant In Peoria

Arizona family travels to Michigan to help another family whose daughter is battling cancer

by Kim Russell from WXYZ ABC 7:
WARREN, Mich. (WXYZ) - A family from Arizona stopped in at a Warren home today to do yard work. The reason?  They know a little girl who lives there is fighting cancer.
Lexi Spencer, 11, has Down Syndrome and is halfway through an expected 30 month treatment for cancer.
The Murset Family wanted to make it easier for Christine and Jim Spencer to focus on their daughter, without having to worry about chores outside the house. Gregg Murset, his wife, and six children cleaned windows, weeded, trimmed trees, and did other chores today.
Gregg says he is trying to practice what he preaches. He runs a website, myjobchart.com .  It helps kids keep track of their chores and good deed through an app.
Kids can then earn an allowance, buy items, or donate money to charities.
"This is an outgrowth of what myjobchart is," said Murset. "It is teaching kids responsibility, work ethic, and giving back."
The Spencer family isn't the only family benefiting. The Mursets are traveling more than 6,000 miles this summer helping families.
"I don't think anybody has done this before," said Syndney Murset, 13. "It is fun to help people and see what their reactions are. "
For Lexi's parents seeing the get done, is a weight off their shoulders.
"I can't tell you how heartwarming it is for people to come from so far and do things we have wanted to do. I mean, our windows, they haven't been washed in 2 years," said Christine Spencer. 

How One Mother Gave Her Daughter With Down Syndrome the Best Day of Her Life

by David Rosenberg from Slate.com:
When Janice Di Joseph and photographer Lindsay Morris sat next to one another on a train, the two women struck up a lively conversation. Morris said she was drawn in by Di Joseph’s extrovert personality, but it was her daughter Ricchina who immediately caught Morris’ eye.

“She was so dreamy,” Morris recalled. “She had this air about her that was so soft and warm and welcoming.”

Morris was returning from the Look3 photo festival in Charlottesville, Virginia, and had felt empowered by a seminar she took on the photography essay. When Di Joseph, who was heading to Philadelphia where she lives, mentioned she was preparing to throw a surprise wedding-themed birthday party for Ricchina, Morris offered to photograph it and created a series, “Ricchina’s Wedding.”

Ricchina has Down syndrome and as she and Di Joseph began to attend more weddings over the years, Ricchina began to question her mother about why she wasn’t able to get married.  

“I would die whenever she asked, because I didn’t know what to say,” Di Joseph said.

Thanks to Di Joseph’s never-take-no-for-an-answer attitude, Ricchina had already met two of her idols, Justin Timberlake and Lance Bass, encounters Di Joseph felt certain would be the highlights of Ricchina’s life. But as it turned out, the wedding-themed birthday party would top both of those.

7 Awesome Life Lessons My Son With Down Syndrome Taught Me

by John Simmons from the Huffington Post:
Amy and I had three biological sons when we adopted a 1-month-old little boy with Down syndrome and started taking lessons from him. Jack was fragile. He would require open heart surgery by the time he was 6-months-old.
Jack contracted postoperative pneumonia and it was looking like he might become a part of the 15 percent of children at that time, who didn't make it home after surgeries like his. I still remember his older brothers, aged 6 to 2, standing around that enormous hospital bed looking longingly at a tiny sibling with more wires and tubes than they could count going from his body to the intimidating flashing, beeping and humming medical equipment. Any of us would have done anything to make him well, but there was nothing we could do. As I recalled our five months together, I realized that there were no regrets. That was the first lesson Jack taught me. When death causes a separation between me and anyone I love, I want to have that same feeling. I want to have nothing amiss. If anything has been out of order, I want to have repaired it to the best of my ability.
The next time my son took me to school, he wasn't even in school, yet. Jack didn't walk until he was 3. He potty trained when he was 4. My son didn't progress quickly, but he did progress. If I tried to measure him against his siblings and the rate that they learned, there could only be disappointment. But when we celebrated Jack's accomplishments for what they were to him, and measured them against his own challenges, advancement for him was at least as impressive as it was for any of our other children. I had no idea how important this lesson was until we adopted several more children and eventually learned that some of them suffered from attachment disorders. Jack 101 taught me to allow my children with attachment difficulties the time that they needed to progress. That course also gave me the understanding, that for these children, accomplishments which might have seemed slight to others, could be celebrated by my family as the monuments they truly were.

Sweethearts with Down syndrome to wed 30 years after meeting

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by Eun Kyung Kim from Today News:
Austin Underwood says he has loved his fiancée, Jessica Smith, since they were 4 years old, when their mothers met at a support group for children with Down syndrome.
Thirty years later, the Dallas couple will finally tie the knot.
“I want to marry her because I love her. She's my very own best friend,” Austin told NBC’s Maria Shriver.
The couple have grown from being playmates to prom dates and, next month, husband and wife.
“All I see is a big sun, or a god,” Jessica said of her sweetheart. “A sun — and the moon!”
Their story reflects not only their love, but the determination by their mothers to give their children normal lives.
“'Two people with Down syndrome, they're really getting married?' You know, there’s a little bit of stigma still there,” said Austin’s mother, Jan Underwood. “And this is kind of another chip away of removing that stigma.”

A Dream for My Daughter With Down Syndrome

by The Stir Bloggers from The Stir:
I've debated posting this letter a million times. Mostly because I know I have readers who will not get this. Some readers won't because they love me and my family and Lily so much...they just don't ever want us to hurt. So to prevent that hurt -- or stop it -- they will say things like, "please just accept Lily for who she is. Just give her time, and trust that she is who God made her to be."
Some readers won't get this letter, because... they simply can't relate. As understanding as they might be, they will never ever know how it feels be the parent of a child with special needs. And believe me when I say, I don't blame them for not being able to relate. I'm in a club that I didn't choose to be in myself, although I wouldn't bargain my way out of it if I could.
I've learned too much, loved too much, grown in ways I didn't know I needed to, discovered little rooms...vast rooms...in my heart that I never knew existed since having Lily. I cannot imagine, and I don'twant to ever imagine, life without Lily; this letter has absolutely nothing to do with a lack of love for her or a desire for her to be someone else. She's my Lily, and I truly believe that quote at the top of my blog...the one that says there was no mistake here. I believe it with all my heart.
But there are some days when I dream....

Former Don Bosco football player Divitto inspired by sister

by Jeff Roberts from The Record:
The voice on the other end of the phone kept him going.
Every night Steele Divitto made the call, sitting in someone else’s house, lounging on someone else’s bed.
The former Don Bosco linebacker spent the winter back in New Jersey, chasing his dream of reaching the NFL. His two-a-day training sessions for Boston College’s March pro day had him run all morning. Lift in the afternoon. Squeeze physical therapy in between. And then he would return to the gym at 8 or 9 p.m. for one-on-one workouts.
But at the end of each grueling day, Divitto knew his older sister, Collette, was waiting to hear from him. She was born with Down syndrome, but never allows it to stop her from doing anything. So Divitto cannot allow anything to stop him.
"She’s a huge inspiration," he said. "She’s one of the most amazing people in my life. I’m so blessed to have her. I’m her biggest fan. She’s my biggest fan.
"At the end of the day, I do it for her."

Close family, who died within days of each other, will have joint funeral

by Kevin Allenspach from SCTimes.com
Funerals are a difficult time for any family. Friday could be specially taxing for Kim Butkowski and her three brothers.
Their sister, Sandy Schulte, died last Friday at 57 after a long illness. Less than 24 hours later, their mother, 76-year-old Sharon Schulte, succumbed to complications from lung and brain cancer. And on Tuesday, their father, 77-year-old Thomas Schulte also died after a stay at Quiet Oaks Hospice Home.
A joint funeral is scheduled for 11 a.m. Friday at Williams Dingmann Family Funeral Home in St. Cloud.
“Sandy was born with Down syndrome,” said Butkowski, 56. “She was the oldest of us kids and my mom and dad promised they were going to keep her at home with them as long as they could. She functioned at the level of a 4-year-old ... Sandy’s health had deteriorated the last couple of years and she got real weak. She had trouble walking and was to the point where she couldn’t feed herself. I think she aged very rapidly...

15 people with Down syndrome help pregnant mom

from Raquel Villanueva from 9News NBC KUSA:

On February 9, an expecting mother who had just learned her child would be born with Down syndrome reached out to an Italian nonprofit.

"I'm scared: What kind of life will my child have?" the worried mother asked the Coordown organization in an email.
To help answer her question, Coordown teamed up with Saatchi & Saatchiad agency. Together, they interviewed 15 people with Down syndrome from different countries across Europe.
They released the responses on YouTube, in honor of World Down Syndrome Day, which is March 21.
The sweet answers reassure the expecting mother that her future son will "be able to hug" her and that they will one day grow up and have a job and other responsibilities.
"Sometimes it will be difficult," they caution. "Very difficult. Almost impossible."
But then ask "isn't it like that for all mothers?"

An Awe-Inspiring Showing of Support: another truth about Down syndrome walks

by Mark Leach from DownSyndromePrenatalTesting.com:

Tomorrow is my local organization’s annual charitable walk to kick off October being National Down Syndrome Awareness Month. I can’t wait.

Last week, as part of a blog hop, I posted “The Truth about Down Syndrome Walks.” In that post, the truth shared was that Down syndrome walks can be overwhelming. And, they indeed can be for the reasons I mentioned in the earlier post. But here’s another truth:

Down syndrome walks are an awe-inspiring showing of support.

We’re now less than 24 hours away from our annual walk, and I must admit that I am eager with anticipation for tomorrow. This is something I could not have fathomed before our daughter was born.

Before then, I had occasionally participated in other charitable walks. My firm sponsors many of them and I would often come out as a show of support for our firm team. One year, my participation went beyond the call of duty by my entry into a “Dude Looks Like a Lady” contest for the American Heart Association’s Walk. I believe photographic evidence is still out there in cyberspace.

Courageous cancer patient, 32, who lived for her baby with Down syndrome passes away on Mother’s Day

By Sasha Goldstein  from New York Daily News:

Courageous cancer patient, 32, who lived for her baby with Down syndrome passes away on Mother’s Day 

Rogers of Ladue, Mo., was thought to be infertile when she became pregnant with son Tristan. The family celebrated the boy’s first birthday in March.

Jorie Rogers just wanted to live long enough to celebrate her son’s first birthday.

She got her wish, but the mother who wasn’t supposed to be a mother, the mother who wanted only the best for her miracle baby with Down syndrome, lost her battle with cancer on Sunday, her second and final Mother’s Day.

"It's very special because not only are we celebrating my son's first year and everything that he had to go through to get here, but it's the one birthday that I'll get with him," Rogers said in March when she held a carnival-themed party for her son, Tristan. "And we get to celebrate the one year that we had together."

She had stopped treatment in March after doctors told the Ladue, Mo., mother that her paraganglioma, a rare form of cancer that caused dozens of tumors in her body, had advanced to a point of no return.

A Sweet Child with Down Syndrome and a Dog Show Life's Perfection

From HeathCliff Rothman:
We love the LOVE in this video. We invite you to share.

A Sweet Child with Down Syndrome and a Dog Show Life's Perfection
Sugar for the soul! A Sweet Child with Down Syndrome and a Golden Labrador reach across to touch each other ... Two tender creatures expressing their beauty -  and the Sweetness of Life. Remember: we ALL ahve a tender heart that beats within us. Show others. Creater of video unknown.

couple with Down syndrome land jobs, find love

by Sonya Padgett from The San Francisco Chronicle:

The way Michelle Desrochers looks at her boyfriend and then places her hand in his, you can tell she adores him.

He understands her, Desrochers, 24, says of Carlos Sierra. He treats her with respect and kindness, opens doors for her and even finishes her sentences.

They are wildly in love. They plan to marry. First, though, they must both complete couples counseling and life skills training, which will teach them how to be in a relationship and how to live independently.

Sierra, 29, and Desrochers have Down syndrome, a genetic disorder caused by the presence of an extra chromosome.

Those born with the syndrome experience mild to moderate intellectual disabilities and delayed physical development. Many suffer from heart problems and other health conditions that can shorten their life expectancy. According to the National Institutes of Health, about 6,000 babies in the U.S. are born every year with the condition.

March 21 was World Down Syndrome Day, observed to help raise awareness of people with Down syndrome and the challenges they face, including a society that may not realize they are people who have hopes, dreams and desires.

If there is one thing Desrochers' mother, Barbara, would want people to know, it's that those with Down syndrome are capable of many things. They can live full, happy lives and even have successful relationships.

Her daughter and Sierra are good examples of that.

New prenatal screening test for Down syndrome raises questions

by Leisa Scott from The Courier Mail:
IT RAINED the day they got the news. Big, pelting drops, as if some screenwriter well-versed in melodrama was dictating the scene.
Annie Love couldn't take the call. She'd been going "slowly nuts" waiting for diagnosis day to arrive and was only just holding herself together. Her husband, Ben, answered the phone. He nodded. Then he mouthed the words. "It's positive. Baby has Downs."
They cried. Huge, heaving sobs to rival the rain. In the days and weeks that followed, they'd pull themselves together, then lose it all over again. And they grieved. This was not the picture they had of their family. This baby was meant to be "normal" just like Sam, then 4, and Charlie, then 2. Now the picture had changed, fuelled by stereotypes: an overweight kid with a bad haircut being teased, a life on the fringes.

But they'd already decided after many heart-wrenching talks in the preceding four weeks between suspicious scan and confirming amniocentesis that they would have the baby. If he had Down syndrome, they'd paint a new picture.
So they prepared. Months of grief gave way to a readiness and a joy. Everyone close to them knew their baby would be born with Down syndrome. Now it was time to get on with it. They wrote a birth plan. No-one in that delivery room was to be negative. This was their baby and they were happy. He arrived at 2.55am on March 20, 2012. Nicholas Fenton Angus Love, 3.8kg, 52cm long.
And here he sits on the floor right now, goo-gah-gurgling as he plays with his toy with gusto. Plump, healthy, with a knockout grin. And "chromosomally enhanced", as his mother likes to say.
As she looks at Nicholas playing at their home in Gordon Park, on Brisbane's northside, it's hard for Annie, a Catholic, to admit she considered abortion. So did Ben. "From a relationship perspective it was probably one of the hardest things we've ever had to go through," says Annie.
That the Loves decided to have Nicholas after the amniocentesis confirmed Down syndrome makes them a rarity. Most don't. Only 5.3 per cent of pregnancies where there is a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome are continued. This figure comes from a respected Victorian study, the only (now-defunct) research in Australia that followed the link from prenatal diagnosis to live births of babies with Down syndrome. Released in 2008 and based on figures from 1986 to 2004, the study was co-authored by associate professor Jane Halliday, a public health genetics expert with Melbourne-based Murdoch Childrens Research Institute. "The vast majority, 95 per cent, were terminated," she says.
It's similar across the Western world. About 90 per cent of foetuses with a diagnosis of Down syndrome are terminated in New Zealand, about 92 per cent in the US, about 93 per cent in the UK.
Now, a new element in the vexed issue of Down syndrome and reproductive choice is entering the fray. From this year, non-invasive prenatal testing is available in Australia. The existing invasive methods of diagnosis amniocentesis and chorionic villus sampling (CVS) are taken up by about 6 per cent of pregnant women, generally after an abnormal scan. They carry the risk of miscarriage the main reason women do not seek the test. But the new tests, although expensive and, for now, limited to the wealthy at a cost of up to $2000, do not pose such risks.
Which raises the very real question: Is this the beginning of the end for Down syndrome?

THE refrains of "I'm A Little Teapot" Coming from Brodie Logan's iPad are starting to get a bit too loud.
Mum Angela suggests the five-year-old turn it down. Brodie shoots her a look as if to say 'Party pooper!' and keeps the volume where it is. On the second request, Brodie considers her options and turns it down. Yep, just like most five-year-olds.
Angela smiles at her daughter's chutzpah and continues reeling off Brodie's achievements. "She's writing her own name. She can count well into her teens. She loves to learn, she loves to be with other kids and be involved and play. She packs her lunch (for a mainstream school), wants to help cook dinner. She's independent, fiercely so."
That's not the picture that was painted for Angela and husband Ben, of Ipswich, when Brodie - their first, followed by Harvey, 3, and Sammie, 18 months - was born with Down syndrome. Angela says while the medical care at a major Brisbane hospital was top-class (Brodie needed a heart operation at 11 weeks), she was shocked by the "overwhelmingly negative" advice from medical staff and social workers about life with Down syndrome.

When Bill met Shelley: No disability could keep them apart

By Ellen McCarthy from the Washington Post:
"If you're that in love, age doesn't mean a thing. Even though my mind was young and my heart was young -- somewhere inside my head I was mentally old enough."
–Bill Ott
“You know that scene in 'Dirty Dancing' where Baby meets Johnny for the first time? It was kind of like that."
–Shelley Belgard
***
BILL OTT WILL always remember the moment he met Shelley Belgard. It was in spring 1988. He was 12 and sometimes shy. Into music, sports and, suddenly, girls.
Shelley was three years older, chatty and outgoing. They'd both shown up at a Montgomery County social club looking for friends, fun and the kind of acceptance that seems so elusive during teen life.
Shelley smiled. Bill introduced himself. And that was it. "I didn't know what love was," he says. "Until I met her."
He was sure it was the real thing, but nobody ever believes that coming from a 12-year-old.
Certainly not one with Down syndrome.
But Bill knew. "If you're that in love, age doesn’t mean a thing," he says. "Even though my mind was young and my heart was young -- somewhere inside my head I was mentally old enough."
And the feeling was mutual. "You know that scene in 'Dirty Dancing' where Baby meets Johnny for the first time? It was kind of like that," remembers Shelley, a petite brunette who was also born with a mental disability. "You're looking at this awesome-looking guy, and you really don't want to blow it. You kind of want to play it safe and not play it safe at the same moment."
He lived in Silver Spring and she was in Potomac, so they exchanged phone numbers. Their parents would drive them to movies and one another's houses. They frequently met at the social club. Throughout high school, they stayed close.

Bill took Shelley to both his junior and senior proms. Each time he rented a tux, and she picked out a fancy new dress. They wrapped their arms around each other to pose for photos and danced all night long. Bill, who grew up going to Catholic Mass every Sunday, told Shelley's mother he would convert to Judaism if that's what it took to be with her.
But after high school, it became more difficult to remain in each other's lives. They moved into assisted-living programs in different parts of the county. There weren't as many social activities to bring them together and, eventually, they lost contact.
But Bill never forgot. He had known true love -- her name was Shelley.

Young man with Down syndrome gives special prayers that are shared by his mother

 
by D.Beeksma from God Discussion:
A young man with Down syndrome named Charlie has been giving special prayers for the world and his mother, through YouTube videos, is doing what she can to share his spiritual messages.
According to his mom, Jannirose, Charlie began receiving what he calls "prayers from God" when he was 13.  He is now almost 20. Ever since the first one, he has dictated his words and his mother has recorded them in a notebook.  He told his mother that the reason people are born with Down syndrome is to bring a "spirit of joyness."
Charlie's messages speak of forgiveness, kindness and love.  "I know that we're in a time when the world needs so much love, and it feels like the perfect moment for his [Charlie's] message to come forth," his mother says.

10 years after 9/11, a dad’s love triumphs over terror

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He’s devoted his life to his family: ‘When my kids smile, the terrorists lose’

by Bob Dotson from Today:

‘They lost; we won’
We all tell our kids, “I’ll be right back.” After 9/11, some children didn’t believe that. Victoria Alonso’s mother, Janet, went to work at the World Trade Center that morning and never returned. Her dad was left to care for a 2-year-old daughter and a baby boy with Down syndrome.

“If I was to tell you I did this by myself, I’d be a liar; I’d be a flat-out liar,” Robert said. “I got my mom, my aunt, my pop to help.”

But he never returned to work at the pizza place he owned in Stony Point, New York. His family substituted for him. “I owe it to my children to be around,” Robert explained. “If I buried my grief in work, my kids would lose both their parents.”

He no longer put off anything that brought them joy. “If we’re lying on the floor and all of a sudden Victoria says, ‘Daddy, I want to go to the park,’ I’m like, ‘Oh, I don’t want to go to the park.’ That’s what I’m thinking, but I say, ‘Let’s go. We’re going to the park.’ ”

Robert shouted “Hang on, guys!” as the kids squealed with laughter. They were riding in a grocery cart, careening across the lot toward dad’s big SUV. “Why should I deprive my children from going shopping?” Robert said. “I see all the other mothers going shopping with their kids.  Why can’t I do it?”

He raced alongside the grocery cart, jumped on its rear axle and pushed with a powerful leg.  The children exploded with laughter again. “When my kids smile, the terrorists lose,” Robert said with a grin. “The people who killed Janet wanted to destroy our happy lives. They lost. We won.”

Since 9/11 Robert has taught his children to treat every moment like an unopened gift. “I don’t want to be the rain cloud in my family,” he said. “I want to give my kids the incentive to do things and go forward.”

He coached Victoria's softball team to the New York State championship the year she turned 12. “We all went out and bought rounds of Lipitor,” Robert chuckled.

And toasted his son Robby, too. The 10-year-old learned to walk and read before most kids with Down syndrome because his dad played with him every day.

Robert waited a long time for his family. He and Janet tried to conceive a child for 10 years, then gave up. Two months later, she was pregnant. They considered it a victory, so they named their daughter Victoria.

These days, when Victoria looks in the mirror, she sees her mother. “She was special to me,” Victoria said, even though she can barely remember her mom. “I love her.” She paused. Her eyes welled with tears. “People need to know that.”

The two are much alike. Victoria is an honor student; Janet studied nights and weekends for years and graduated from college in her late 30s. She worked as an email manager on the 97th floor of the World Trade Center. On the day of the attacks, she had just gone back to her job at Marsh & McLennan after staying home to take care of her second baby, Robby.

Janet’s body was found seven months after 9/11, on her son’s first birthday. “God works in funny ways,” Robert sighed. “Hearing the knock on the door and the news that Janet’s body had been recovered from Ground Zero, that was the most difficult. It really knocked me out. It was like September 11 all over again.”

I visited the Alonsos on the first Mother’s Day after 9/11. Robert scooped up his kids and carried them out on the deck in back. “Come on,” he said, “let’s say hello to mommy in the stars.” It was his 13th wedding anniversary.

As Victoria neared her 13th birthday, I asked her, “If your mom were sitting here today, what would you ask her?"

Victoria stared across her backyard in thought, then turned to me. “I’d ask her, ‘What would she want to do with me today?’ ”

Good times keep bad memories at bay. The Alonsos spent that 9/11 in the park, near a memorial that their neighbors built to Janet and all the other parents from their New York City suburb who went to work that day but never came home.

Robby wandered to a wall filled with names as his father and sister played catch nearby. “Right here,” he said, pointing to Janet Alonso’s name etched in marble. “This was my mommy.”

The little boy leaned over and scraped his fingers back and forth across his mother’s name. His father watched, then rubbed his own hands together, as if he could scour away painful thoughts.

Robby drew his fingers to his mouth, kissed them and gently pressed them on his mother’s name. “Mama,” he whispered.

We all think about 9/11 once a year. The Alonsos live it every day.

Dreams come true for a special couple

from Mississauga.com by Alex Consiglio:
Michael Arruda put on his best suit three years ago on Christmas Eve, got a ride over to his lifelong friend's home and had her roused from a sound sleep at 12:01 a.m.
Melissa Mancini came down her winding staircase in her robe to find Michael down on one knee with a dozen red roses and a wedding ring.
"What are you doing here?" she asked. Then, suddenly, she realized her dreams were coming true.
Michael and Melissa were married today at St. Catherine of Siena Church in front of more than 400 people.
They are a unique couple. They both have Down Syndrome.
The couple, who have known each other since they were 2-years-old, left the church in a horse and carriage. They rode back to Melissa's father's home behind the Trillium Health Centre.
"Wooooooo, we're married," yelled Melissa, 25. "We did it!"
Melissa said the horse carriage ride back — despite the "stinky" smell — was "amazing and beautiful." It was just what she always dreamed of since deciding more than a decade ago that she would marry Michael.
They've been dating for seven years, but Ellie De Sousa, Michael's mother, said the two have been taking about getting married since they were just 12.
"Michael was always chasing Melissa around," said De Sousa. "Melissa wouldn't give him the time of day until she began to be interested in men, and then it was settled."
De Sousa said Melissa and Michael first met when she founded Peel's Caring Network for Challenged Children with Anna Mancini, Melissa's mother.
The two have been inseparable since.
Moving forward, the newlyweds will alternate living in the Mancini and De Sousa homes, month by month.
"I wasn't nervous at all," said Michael. In fact, his mother was probably more nervous than either him or Melissa.
"I'm married!" yelled Michael, a big smile on his face as he held Melissa's hand.
For their honeymoon, the newlyweds will first head to Niagara Falls before flying to the Dominican Republic, where Melissa's sister will be joining them.
"She won't be sleeping in my room anymore," said Melissa, pointing out to her mother Anna that she's now a married woman.
"It's a real fairy tale story," said Anna.

Click here for wedding photos!

A fantastic video showing support for WDSD

An amazing video showing community support of World Down Syndrome Day by Kelly Ryser. Mobile viewers click here.