Noah's Dad Working to Change Down Syndrome Attitudes
Published : Wednesday, 11 Jan 2012, 8:37 PM CST
Adapted for Web by Tracy DeLatte | myFOXdfw.com
DALLAS - A Target ad featuring a 6-year-old boy with Down syndrome has caught the attention of the world and it’s all thanks to a North Texas dad and his blog. Rick Smith said it’s the story the world needs to hear about children with Down syndrome.
Smith couldn’t be more proud of his 1-year-old son Noah. But on the day he was born instead of hearing congratulations from the hospital he got apologies.
“That was powerful. She came in and it was, ‘I’m sorry.’” he said.
Noah was born with Down syndrome. Yet all that mattered to Rick and Abbie Smith was that they had a beautiful new baby boy.
“There’s no sorry here. There’s no sorry. There’s just celebration,” Smith said.
The couple set out to show the world that children are a joy and nothing takes away from that. They started a blog at noahsdad.com and a Facebook page where hundreds of families have celebrated their stories of children with Down syndrome.
“Today people born with Down syndrome go on to live productive lives, members of society, go to college, hold careers,” he said.
And then Smith found the Target ad for kids clothing featuring a 6-year-old boy named Ryan. He has Down syndrome.
Smith posted a picture of the ad on his blog and it went viral, providing inspiration to parents everywhere.
“And see that this little boy is wonderful, just an incredible little boy,” he said.
Noah is also incredible, his father said. He started physical therapy at 3 weeks old and he’s made great progress.
“You have to work a little harder to do things that typical children can do easily. It doesn’t mean that the extra effort isn’t worth it and that extra effort goes a long way to help them to live just as normally as their typical peers do,” Abbie Smith said.
The Smiths hope Noah, Ryan and other kids with Down syndrome everywhere will change people’s attitudes. Smith said in cases where pre-natal testing indicates Down syndrome nine out of 10 pregnancies are terminated.
“Every time you see one Noah there are nine Noah’s the world never gets a chance to meet, don’t get a chance at life. So as a dad, as a parent that breaks your heart,” he said.
Read more on myFOXdfw.com: http://www.myfoxdfw.com/dpp/video/dad-working-to-change-down-syndrome-attitudes#ixzz1jFhTlwCx
Check out Noah's Dad.
Be gentle.
Whom the heck is really Noah's Dad aka Rick Smith anyway and will he be the next Kelle Hampton, if he puts his blog into a memoir form? Like Kelle Hampton has done with her blog, Bloom. Basically, all of this has been bugging for a mo now. Have yet to come info that tells me one way or the other if both of them are for real or fake.
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