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.



Saturday, April 21, 2012

Will's Way is Back!

We have been offline for a month but have been very busy otherwise!  We rehabbed the house, moved into the house, celebrated Easter, cleaned up the yard, went to the zoo and many other fun things while we were away.  Will has been a great helper in the house and yard and has enjoyed seeing grandmas and grandpas and anuts, uncles and cousins a lot while we moved.  It is so fun to see him explore all the new spaces and especially to watch him have fun in the yard.  He finally has somewhere to get his hands dirty!

It was a long and challenging road for us, but as with all things in our life we just had to be patient.  Which is hard to do.  God must have thought I was the most impatient person in the world!  He did make sure that we had the most supportive family in the world to help us get through all of this.  We are very lucky to have a strong support system that not only helps us get through challenging times with Will, but helped us get into our house.  They cleaned and painted and tiled and helped us move.  We would be no where without them.  They really are our foundation.


So enjoy some before and after pics of the house and some of Will at Easter, in the yard and at the zoo.  He is doing well overall and making small progress with speech each week.  He has school for about another month and we are looking for summer therapy programs for him.  We found some funding for more signing videos and for summer programs and hope to take advantage of that.  He is as ornery as ever but keeps us smiling!

We have lots of big plans for larger renovations, but this house was in pretty bad shape, so we had to do a lot just to move in.  The biggest changes are clean paint in all the rooms, refinished hardwood floors and new floors in the kitchen and bath, since they were down to the subfloors when we took possesion.

Kitchen before and after...





Living and dining room before and after...





Bathroom after...
I didn't get a good before picture, which is unfortunate because it was the worst.  No floors and a really bad vanity.  Not to mention old gray tile on the walls and a painted tub:(


Will's room...
his room mostly just got paint,
 but I thought I should show it since this blog is really about him!


Some of our helpers...



Easter!  Will loved the easter grass and the chocolate covered peep! 
He also liked his books and bubbles!





Will reading his elephant book before Easter morning mass...



 
Visiting the real elephant at the zoo...he signed 'elephant' over and over!



Will by the tulips:)


Will and Daddy attempting to fly a kite...



The bubbles went much better!



Playing in the backyard:)





More on the adventures of Will in his new backyard to come!