I just wrapped up a solid 31 days of spreading awareness the way dandelion fuzzies spread their adorable fluff. I feel good about it. I shared all over social media and I did my son a great service. The ones who know him know this. You know Judah oozes giggly, independent-brilliance the way only he can.

But is one month of advocating enough? For the next 334 days will friends of Judah recall my responsibility or will all my hard, fact-spewing, work be done in vain? Gah, I hope not.

I hope you see almond eyes at the grocery store and realize this person is worthy of existing alongside us. Arm in arm, linking elbows, fighting the good fight for all abilities. I hope if you see someone speaking slowly and conscientiously 100 days from now, your memory sparks facts about low tone rather than low intelligence. I hope in 59 days if you see siblings together and one has an extra chromosome, that you don’t feel sorry for the sibling missing one.  I hope instead you celebrate the fact that both of their lives are 90% better because of each other. I hope you see a person with Down syndrome and can be pretty certain that their parents are still happily together.  In 236 days if you are lucky enough to run into someone with Down syndrome, I hope you recognize how hard they work at what comes so easily to you, how their immune systems struggle, and how there is a 50% chance that they were born with a heart defect. I hope that this doesn’t evoke pity on your part but rather kindness and tolerance. In 300 days from now, I hope you are still not saying the “r” word when someone does something unfavorable.  I hope you are continuing to greet everyone you meet with equality. I hope in 50 years if prenatal testing and termination create a world without people who have Down syndrome, you take a good long look at it and ask if that’s really the kind of world you want to live in.

I hope my daily doses meant something. I hope if you are lucky enough to know someone with Down syndrome,  you know how lucky you are. I hope that if a baby with Down syndrome has come into your life,  you are happy and you feel as blessed as we do. I hope you are always accepting. I hope are never sad for us.  No matter the day or the month or the year, I hope you can recognize that people with Down syndrome and their families are living 365 days of awesome!