On November 18 2009 at 4:02 am William Alan Bartosch was joyfully welcomed into our family. He weighed in at 7 lbs 9 oz and 20 in long. We were stunned to discover that he was born with Trisomy 21, or Down syndrome. We love him unconditionally from the top of his toe-head to the tips of his toes. We know that this diagnosis will not define him. He is a happy, healthy little boy that just happens to have an extra chromosome.



Follow us on this unexpected and exciting journey as we learn how to live life Will's Way.



Sunday, February 28, 2010

Life and Coffee


Have you ever been sitting in church listening to the homily...and think to yourself...'is he talking directly to me?' ? That happened to me at church this weekend.

We had a visiting priest that gave a great analogy of life to coffee. He said our lives are like coffee. If we just take whole coffee beans and pour water over them, on the other side we just get brown-colored water that tastes gross. But if we grind up the beans and then pour water over them, we get a wonderful version of water on the other side called COFFEE!

We too need to be ground up sometimes. We have to be ground by the stuff of life and carry our crosses and on the other side is a better version of ourself. On the other side of our crosses is salvation. On the other side of being ground up by life we find God:)

I guess what I thought this meant for me is that Will is going to help me be a better version of myself. He is going to help me come closer to God. He is going to teach me more about love, compassion, understanding and patience than I would ever have learned if I hung out all day in Italy with brown-colored water taking it easy.

He will make us ALL a better version of us:) Thanks Will!

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

DS Research

Gaga and Papa Brough and Ron and I went to a very interesting talk at OSU last night about research to improve learning, memory and speech in individuals with Down Syndrome. The foundation has a website if you are interested in reading more... http://www.dsrtf.org/.
Some of what we took away is that there are many similarities in the treatment and research of people with Alzheimer's and those with DS, that there are lots of very promising drugs in the works to improve cognitive function for DS individuals but that they are still in trial, and that DS research is drastically under-funded.

It was a very interesting evening. Thanks Aunt Mere for watching Will so we could go:)

This picture is of Will and Ron at Jonas' birthday party this weekend...I'm not sure who is more unhappy about the hats Gaga and Ava made...Will or Ron!?! Happy 2nd Birthday Jonas Edward!

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

I'm Down With You

This is such a neat project...I can't wait to order the book and see the documentary!
http://www.imdownwithyou.com/

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Pictures

This is my last post for today...when it rains it pours! I posted new pictures on our Bartosch Shutterfly page including some of Will's baptism. Enjoy!

Good Article

This is a very good article that was sent to me by Will's Great Aunt Sandy. Well written and very insightful!
The word that really hurt me The News-Sentinel - Fort Wayne IN

Adversity

This is a sad story about the US snowboarder Kevin Pearce that was supposed to be in the Olympics but had a bad injury that left him in a coma. He has a brother with DS that is a Special Olympian in snow skiing.
Check out this great MSN Video: Injury, adversity don't stop snowboarder

Smiley Boy :)


Will is getting so big! He is up to 11 lbs and 23 in. Will is smiling and cooing and sucking his little thumb. He is a very vocal boy and loves to just lay in his bed in the morning and cackle and coo away. It is wonderful to wake up to that sound! He has started reaching for toys when Daddy plays with him and is holding up his head very well. He loves it when Mommy dances him around the room and sings to him...although no one else would enjoy my singing! He smiles so big when I sing to him that you can barely see his eyes! His whole body smiles:) He loves when his cousins, Ava and Jonas, talk to him and kiss him. He just lights up when they play with him!

Since I wrote last ( I know it has been a long time...sorry!) we have had a few appointments to report. He had his follow up hearing screening, since he didn't pass on his left ear in NICU. This time he passed with flying colors on both ears! Thank the Lord! We went to the Children's Hospital Audiology Department to have them do a thourough check of his hearing and all 4 tests showed that he is hearing with both ears. He was a very good boy through the whole thing and all the ladies in the office went nuts for sweet William. We are so happy and relieved:)

We also had his 2 month appointment with our favorite doc, Dr. Parsons! She is so sweet and compasionate and said that "Mr. Will is doing awesome!". She said all of his stats were good and thought he was doing well holding up his head. She noted that he definately has low muscle tone, but reminded me that this is to be expected. Will got 2 shots and 1 oral vaccine. He was very grouchy at us that night but was back to his smiley self by morning!

We are still talking to Help Me Grow and hoping to get some services started soon. Our coordinator said that although he tested well, based on his medical diagnosis of DS, he should qualify for services through the program. So we are patiently waiting to be contacted to meet with the therapists to get started.

Will was also baptised a couple of weeks ago. We had a very nice ceremony after church and everybody that loves Will was there. His Great Grandma Brough even made the trip all the way from Fort Wayne! Will is so lucky to have Uncle Ricky as his Godfather and both of his Aunts as his Godmothers. Since Will is going to need all the support he can get we saw no other way than to have both Aunt Amelia and Aunt Meredith as his Godmothers! He is such a lucky boy to have so many people that love him. We know he has lots of people loving him and praying for him that weren't there as well. Trust me we know you are praying for us because we don't know how we would be doing so well otherwise.

Please keep up all the prayers for us. Although we are doing well we do still have our rough days. Sometimes it is still so hard to believe that Will has Down Syndrome because he is doing so well with all the 'normal' baby stuff. I know eventually he will fall behind and this will be very hard for me as a mother. Every once in awhile, when I least expect it, I get a bit sad thinking about the future. For now though we are doing well and staying positive. We absolutely adore Will and just love him to pieces!

(In this picture Will has foot rattles on his feet and bear-bells on his wrists. The foot rattles were recommended and are a baby toy...but the bear-bells are from Ron's wilderness runs to scare away bears. As you can see Will thought it was as funny as we did!)