Shannon Blaeske | The Grit and Grace Project

Shannon Blaeske

Shannon made her way from Michigan to San Diego to Southwest Florida back to Michigan again, where she lives with her husband, twin boys and adorable daughter who rocks an extra 21st chromosome. When she is not with her family, tending the house, or behind the chair doing hair (she's a hair stylist), yoga, reading and drinking lots and lots of coffee are what fill in the rest of her time.

As a Mom, I Want You to Know This About Down Syndrome

By Shannon Blaeske / Motherhood

“We suspect the baby has a genetic abnormality that is causing the birth defects.” Right from the first suspicion that there were issues with the baby girl growing inside of me, the doctors switched from referring to my baby as “your baby” and “she” to less personal terms like “the baby” and “it.” It was my first taste of how our culture views and treats people who are born, for lack of a better term, different. At 20 weeks gestation, we knew our little girl, Fiona, would have Down syndrome. The diagnosis came a few weeks after we had found out she also had a life-threatening heart defect and bilateral clubbed feet. We were heartbroken and scared. Life was never going to […]

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