I can’t believe it’s taken me over 2 weeks to write this blog post, but I’ve been totally wiped out with flu. I clearly had no idea what flu really was because shocked is an understatement, I’ve never been so ill! Reagan even had to take time off work and that never happens, and at one point he came running into the bedroom worried that I was dead! Me being me, refused to go to the doctors, because it’s flu right? In my head I just had to fight it, but please don’t take my word for that. Anyway, after a week I slowly started to get better and then I was so exhausted I couldn’t move for days. And emotional! I sobbed because the penguin in Happy Feet is a shit singer!

Well I’m better now and finally getting around to thanking all you wonderful people that voted for me in the Uk Blog Awards. We made the finals in the Health and Social Care category and yet again I can’t believe it. Thanks so, so much, it really does mean so much to us that you took the time to vote and think we deserve it. We have made the finals in two big blogging awards and have existed for little over a year, I can’t believe it!

I’m not the best blogger. I won’t pretend I know anything about seo, algorithms or layouts. I mean, I’m useless at computers! (I’m trying I promise!). But I can do words, and it seems my words mean something to people because they are being read and shared over the internet daily. I genuinely hope they’re making people journeys a little easier and that something is being learnt.

When I first started writing this blog 16 months ago it was therapy for me, I’d found a way to process my feelings and work everything out in my head. It was a way to get everything out and enabled me to be positive about our life. It was a release for me and I’m so thankful that I found a way to make my life more positive for my children. I wrote about Rivers condition, about acceptance, about society uneducated views about what our life is like and why I feel the need to set the record straight. Well then I realised that my writing could help others and it has. I’ve had messages from parents who have found out they are carrying a baby with Down syndrome and have taken comfort and found positivity from my articles. I’ve had messages from parents struggling to accept their child’s extra chromosome, and have been able to find confidence knowing that we are all in this together, with different stories but a team. I speak to doctors and teachers who are learning that Down syndrome is so much more than just a diagnosis. And I get messages from people who have no connection with Down syndrome at all, yet read the articles just because they want to learn and do better. I am so thankful to every single person that reads the blog, I hope I am able to provide something meaningful and educational to you all.

As cliche and cheesy as it sounds, I do want to give my son a voice in a world that sees him as less. Because he is not less. He is different, but not less. One day I hope he finds his own voice and shout with it as loud as he can, showing the world that people with Down syndrome absolutely have something to offer society. Thanks so much for allowing me to be his voice and listening to what we have to say.

Love always
Hayley