Finding the Strength to Admit My Failures

One of the hardest and most necessary things we do as parents is to admit our failures. We cannot do everything. We cannot be everywhere (unless you are doing something bad, then we most definitely are EVERYWHERE…but I digress), we are only human and sometimes we will fall down.

This week I decided to shine some light on a giant failing of my own. It is something I’ve been wanting to write about for a while and BLUNTmoms was absolutely the right place for me to tell this story.

When I was 10 weeks pregnant with my first child, I went in for the traditional scan to check for abnormalities and risks. Instead of walking out of the room beaming over black and white images of arms and legs, my husband and I had slightly stunned looks on our faces. There was a slight abnormality…maybe nothing…maybe everything. We sat down later with our OBGYN and talked about whether or not we should do an invasive test to see if our child had Down’s Syndrome. The doctor looked us in the eyes that day and asked, “What would you do if you have a child with Downs? Would you be willing to change your life plans? Are you prepared to make the necessary sacrifices to give the child the best possible life? If you are not, then you need to make a decision right now.”

We were lucky that month. We did the extra tests and found that our baby was healthy. We were spared from having to follow through on the decisions we made. We would not have been strong enough to raise that child. You can read my story over at BLUNTmoms.