Signs you Might Be Adopting.......... a Child with Down's Syndrome

1.  You start blubbering after seeing a child that looks like your bio kids, only with DS, getting picked up and greeted with hugs and kisses by her brothers and sisters like she's the best thing in their world.

2. You're on a first-name basis with all the notaries at City Hall.

3. Your whole idea of what constitutes physical beauty has changed.

4. I Corinthians 1:27 is now one of your favorite verses in all of Scripture.

5. You drive your cars for forever! and are okay with that.

6. You no longer think having your child meet all the developmental milestones on time is too important, and showering loved ones with hugs and kisses is more valued than a high GPA.

7. You can't help staring at every little one with Down's you see. To the point their parents think you're weird.

8. You start to dread the weekends, because you know there is no hope of news from your agency.

9. You start to realize how we're all special-needs in some way, and God still pursues and loves us anyway.

10. You live with butterflies because you know that your life is about to change dramatically, in a way you can never fully be prepared for.  And still you move forward, because that child so needs a momma and a daddy and God has given you the desire to be the ones.

11.  From the crazed look in your eyes, lack of sleep, irritability, eye strain, and addled brain, it's obvious you are suffering from a heretofore unrecognized malady known as dossier-preparation-derangement-syndrome.  Symptoms intensify each time a document either expires, has a colon that should be a semi-colon and therefore obviously needs to be redone and fed-exed overnight to a tune of $18.30 each time; or is completely destroyed by the dog, a child, or even the sufferer who is desparate for a piece of scrap paper after waiting on hold with the Department of Vital Records in her birth state for 20 minutes and is so shocked to get an actual person on the line that she temporarily forgets the importance of this piece of paper and thinks it is her grocery list.

12. You make no plans, have no life, and are such a dork you check your e-mail every 2 minutes hoping for some word from your agency that will put a smile on your weary face.

I'm sure this is an incomplete list, but if you see someone you suspect is in the process, do her a favor - give her a hug (dads like hugs, too). And be kind, as my husband can tell you, that irritability part is for real.