7 years ago today my story was rewritten

February 19, 2007 was a life changing day. 

A tiny little angel came into my life and captured my heart. And in doing so, brought with her a new "normal" adding a new chapter to my story that I would have left out. 

Breezy girl you were that little angel. On this day 7 years ago, you rewrote my story.

Where do I even start writing to you about your birth day?

How do I even begin to express or articulate into words what you have brought to our lives?

You changed my life in ways I never thought I would be thankful for.

Your smile says it all

Its truly magical

and lights up any room


As papa mike says, each new person that walks into a room is Bree's new best friend.

You do not judge, you do not see differences, you just love with an ability I never knew was possible.

You just "get it"

You get what life should be about....


Love...
real,
unconditional, no strings attached,
love,

laughter,



hard work and perserverance,

and pure joy.

Whenever your birthday rolls around and I think back to that blizzardy february day when you came into our lives,

 I often wish I would have known then, even a blink of what I know now, because if I had, my tears would have been for very different reasons.

Instead of being tears for what I thought I had lost, they would have been tears of joy for what I was really given.

the fears and the worries of what down syndrome would mean in my life would have been replaced with excitement and shouts of joy that I get to walk along side you in this life.

When you were born people would often ask how we were going to handle this and dad would say "She might be a little different, have her own challenges, but what kid doesn't?"



After 7 short years of being blessed to be your mother, I have only begun to learn all that you are hear to teach me.

when you were born the doctors pointed out the features that were typical signs that you had down syndrome 

such as your almond shaped eyes, 

your flat bridge on your little nose, and 

your space between your toes....

all things that at the time set you apart as having something different...something very foreign to us.....something we were scared of...

but now those special features are what make you who you are and 

we love them oh so much!

You are the definition of true beauty.

You're the best thing I never knew I needed

and you continue to remind us of that as you continue to touch hearts and open minds all around you.

You rewrote my story when you were born and you allowed me to be part of a world I never knew I wanted to be part of.

A world where differences are ok, in fact they are celebrated, and where my idea of "perfect" was reinvented to something so much better then I had written in my book. And your version of our story was better then I could have ever imagined.

A world where people come together and hearts are softened as we get to be the ones to witness God's precious souls walking among us here on earth

Because of you Bree, I have friends and experiences that I would never have had without you.

You teach your sisters important life lessons that they could only learn growing up along side you, things that as I parent I could only hope to be able to teach them, and you do it just by being you.

If people could really know what it is like to have a child with down syndrome, they would pray FOR it, not pray to take it away.

Not because it makes life easy, but because it teaches us all to reach a little deeper inside ourselves and find what we are really capable of.

It teaches us all what life is really all about.

You teach us that

We talk so often about how Down syndrome has influenced our lives, because it has...but it is not who you are Bree. but rather something that you  have, but because of your extra chromosome, we have had so many opportunities and so many experiences that we never would have had without. We have many friends we would never had met, we have had many opportunities we would never have had, and now we have another daughter who we would not have if it wasn't for you, Bree.

I have always felt you were Mia's guardian angel because without you in our lives, we would never have found Mia. You changed our hearts and opened us up to a world we never knew we ever wanted to set foot in.

You are  the reason we were led to Mia and the reason we knew we could say yes to Mia

I can only imagine the conversations that must have gone on in heaven between you and Mia as you looked forward to your lives on earth. You must have told Mia that you would go down to earth around the same time,

but would not find eachother for 4 years, until mom and dad were ready. You must have told Mia that she would feel lost for a time but that one day all that would change. I am sure you promised Mia that if she would just hold on, that we would come for her and that you would both have a family together.

Down syndrome has changed our lives.

Little did we know in those first moments, hours , and days of this new world, that it would change our lives FOR. THE. BETTER.

The last 7 years of your life have taught me that what we often fear in the unknown actually turns out to be the greatest blessing we could have ever known.

The unknowns that we were so caught up in at your birth have turned out to be anything but scary.

They have turned out to be blessings, not burdens

"Life’s a story that is all twisted and turned
All that matters is the lessons we learn.

'Cause we’re all unfinished songs..." 

I am forever grateful Bree that you are part of my song. Words cannot express how lucky I am to be your mom! It is truly humbling!

Happy 7th birthday to the little girl who we should all strive to be more like! 

"If you're lucky enough to be different, don't ever change."

-Taylor Swift-