Up with Down

Joni Eareckson Tada wrote a compelling article in last week's WORLD that is just a little closer to home in light of our imminent Isaac late november.

Among the anxieties of child birthing and rearing is the (admittedly infrequent) worry that our baby will be developmentally disabled.

Though never in my life have i felt so content and confident in the love and sovereignty of God, as well as in His perfect purposes fulfilled in us within the anti-humanistic constraints of child-rearing. i believe joy in servanthood awaits the victor in humility, and few things i imagine humble a parent like raising a child who's difficult through no fault of his own.


Tada writes about a college senior who volunteers to work with disabled children. This senior, Doug, discovered he had a knack and love for Down syndrome kids, so much to the point where he said, "when I get married, I hope that my wife and I will have a child with Down syndrome."

Tada writes that she "chalked it up to youthful idealism" at first, but came to believe him, noting that Doug "observed a special joy in children and adults with Down syndrome, as well as a godliness that strengthened his faith. He could also tell these children blessed the lives of the moms and dads to whom he administered over the years."


The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, however, seem to advocate for a different view. They recommend that all mothers-to-be undergo prenatal testing for Down syndrome. The problem is that over 90 percent of pregnant women given this diagnosis choose to have an abortion.

In response, there are parents traveling across North America to speak to the blessings and advantages of raising a Down syndrome child, among which is the child's aid in bringing a family closer together.

I'm reminded of our premarital counselor who told us that problems in marriage are inevitable, but depending on how you face them (and face them together, not selfishly), you can use them to deepen your love by working through the challenge as a team and seizing upon those humility-enriching experiences. If serving was never difficult, everyone would do it.

I'm also comforted by the fact that a loving God is in control of our offspring, and nothing happens outside of His will. Course, this is exactly the kind of thing that Christians extol and then subsequently regret when they fall into difficult circumstances and have to put their money where their mouth was. But it's easy to imagine a child that loves and daily wins his parents hearts while trying their patience. he is, after all, a child.


Tada closes with this commentary:

"A person with Down syndrome may never understand how to keep up with the Joneses or how to get over his head in debt. He or she may never be clever enough to sneak behind his spouse's back and look for an illicit affair (yes, men and women with Down syndrome do marry, and some of those marriages are honest-to-goodness models to neighbors and friends). They won't be cunning enough to know how to cheat, weave lies, or how to stab a friend in the back."

She closes by citing the ruling by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists as a continuation of the societal trend towards discounting the disabled, devaluing people "as things that can be dispensed with, altered, aborted, or euthanized."