George's Family
The story of bringing George home can only be paraphrased into three words: meant to be. We discussed adopting a child with Down syndrome on our second date. It was written into our life plan from the beginning. So, when we learned about the National Down Syndrome Adoption Network, it seemed like destiny, and we excitedly decided to grow our family by adopting our first child who would be rocking that extra chromosome. We eagerly finished our home study and we were placed on the registry with the NDSAN. A little more than a week later, we got that magical call from Stephanie that we got matched with a little boy in California. Five days after that phone call, our son, George, was placed into our arms. In the span of one singular week we had our dream in our arms. We are so grateful for this incredible organization - the shape of our family has been so positively impacted by the NDSAN. We can't remember or imagine life without George. And thanks to the NDSAN, so many other families get to share this feeling and for that, we truly are the lucky few!
George turns 1
Little man is One and rocking it! He's as funny and social as they come. Here's a little peek of his first birthday, where you can see most of that personality coming through! :)
Hi there, GLADS family, 2/5/21
We got your birthday card for George and I was so touched that you all thought of him for his second birthday! How on earth could he be 2?! It is flying by!
George is now a toddler in every sense of the word- walking, running, climbing, inevitably falling, tantruming, and trying to talk! He has personality coming out of him like wild and he's a social butterfly, which has definitely made this last year a little bit difficult. He has about 20 signs that he uses to communicate. Elmo is the man in charge at our house!
We are so grateful for this community, and cannot thank you enough for continuing to include us in your lives! xoxox
March 2024
Georgie has discovered a love of baseball! He played last summer in our local Miracle League team and LOVED it! His favorite part is dancing in the outfield and running all over. We're working on getting him to run the bases, but...one thing at a time :)
He is, as always, super passionate about reading! I often find him and his sister curled up reading something together. His teachers report that he spends a lot of time in his classroom's library every day!
Speaking of school, he looooves preschool! He spends half of his days in the general education Pre-K classroom, and then the second half in the special education class. He is so loved there, which is such a great relief to us. George's personality could be described as "spicy" or even potentially "grumpy old man" so we love that his teachers and therapists have cracked his tough exterior and got to the sweet little guy underneath. Hard to believe he'll start kindergarten in the fall!
This past October, we discovered an undiagnosed congenital heart defect during a routine appointment with a cardiologist. We learned that this very, VERY minor heart defect was either missed at his birth or got lost in the information during the adoption (his birth family was never told about it, either), so we were very surprised. He will require heart surgery in the next few years to repair this, but we're hoping that we can avoid open heart surgery as he gets bigger! Luckily, this has no affect on his quality of life, and we are under strict instructions to pretend it isn't there until we have a reason to worry!
His favorite person is his dad, followed closely by his grandpa. He LOVES his sister, even though she is a toddler now and takes his toys. Hearing two little humans bicker with almost no verbal words is quite an experience! :)
