September 4, 2008 9:34 AM
Sarah Palin - advocate for Down syndrome, special needs
Every family or friend of a person with Down syndrome would love to see the footage of the love showered on baby Trig - Sarah Palin's fifth child, who has Down syndrome - by his siblings last night
I loved the close ups of the youngest daughter cradling Trig in her arms and smoothing his hair.
And my goodness, when Sarah took the baby and held him close to her, then turned him out so all America could see his beautiful face - well, it doesn't get much better than that.
Who would have thought that a baby with Down syndrome could be in such a position to witness to the world?
Palin on her son Trig and her promise to us:
And in April, my husband, Todd, and I welcomed our littlest one into the world, a perfectly beautiful baby boy named Trig. From the inside, no family ever seems typical.That's how it is with us.
Our family has the same ups and downs as any other -- the same challenges and the same joys.
Sometimes even the greatest joys bring challenge.
And children with special needs inspire a special love.
To the families of special-needs children all across this country, I have a message: For years, you sought to make America a more welcoming place for your sons and daughters.
I pledge to you that if we are elected, you will have a friend and advocate in the White House.
Folks, this is going to spark a national conversation that is long overdue:
Sarah Palin, Down syndrome & the brave new worldBy Valerie Karr
Thursday, September 4th 2008, 4:00 AM
Republican vice presidential nominee Gov. Sarah Palin has put children with disabilities in a national spotlight. Her recent decision to have a child with Down syndrome places her in a tiny minority of American women. A staggering statistic: 92% of unborn children diagnosed with Down syndrome are now aborted in the United States. I don't normally get overly exercised about the issue of abortion, but this number is striking - and a searing indictment of social values. Somehow, we are saying the lives of children with Down syndrome mean less than those of so-called normal children.
Read entire article here.
Also, see Palin's Amniocentesis Sparks Debate about Procedure for quotes from an interview I did with Penny Starr as well as some cool pictures of my family.
~~~~~~~
Though I have a TON of stuff to blog - including some interesting emails from you all on other topics, I'm going to try hard not to blog any more today - just want to bask in the wonder of the picture of Todd, Sarah and Trig first thing on my blog.
What a wonderful witness!
Posted in Campaign 2008, Disabilities, Down syndrome, Pro-Life Issues | Permalink
Comments
Transcript of Sarah's Speech:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=94258995
Posted by: mamarachel | September 4, 2008 10:18 AM
I don't know if it is a "transcript" but here is the speech:
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Conventions/story?id=5720910&page=1
Posted by: Carol` Kennedy | September 4, 2008 10:21 AM
Barabara,
I think this may be the transcript you are looking for. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=94258995
Donna
Posted by: Donna | September 4, 2008 10:29 AM
Barbara, You and I are posting the EXACT same things! YES!
Here's some pictures I think you will love...they're not exactly what you are looking for, but they are awesome.
At risk of sounding...um...not nice, I think that "we" conservative Christians risk looking like complete idiots for saying a woman this talented can't be vice president.
Oh, how I am PRAYING for Sarah's impact on the holocaust that is taking all of the Down's babies! Thank the LORD for giving her this opportunity.
Posted by: Holly | September 4, 2008 10:42 AM
http://www.foxnews.com/photoessay/0,4644,5013,00.html#3_55
Fox News has lots of photos of her from last night.
Posted by: Stacy | September 4, 2008 10:47 AM
Go to www.zimbio.com - tons of pictures. Click on photos of Sarah Palin. Number 48 of 100 shows the entire family with Trig facing forward.
Posted by: Diane | September 4, 2008 10:57 AM
Oh my. While searching for the photo, I found this from CBS News:
Palin's Future Son-In-Law A "Redneck"
What made CBS think that was a reasonable headline?? And, BTW, the part where it says that his MySpace profile says "I don't want kids" -- they make it seem like he wrote that. In fact, MySpace makes you choose from among a few pre-written responses. Among those choices, it's perfectly reasonable for a 16 year old boy to choose "I don't want kids." After all, he hasn't even been to that site since 7 months before Bristol got pregnant.
Posted by: Michelle Potter | September 4, 2008 10:57 AM
This particular part of her speech brought tears to my eyes last night. As a matter of fact the whole speech made me a little emotional. Sarah Palin is the Change we definitely need in the White House. It's so refreshing to hear someone with her values and morals speak so freely and so candidly. I'm so excited about the upcoming election now. McCain has surprised me and it makes me like him a little more.
Posted by: Joani | September 4, 2008 11:48 AM
Yes, bask is a great word for it.
While I'm basking I am going to call attention to what seems to be something not discussed about John McCain.
With his wealth of experience and wisdom, he is going to run this campaign like a military manouver. He is playing Obama like a military adversary. Something Obama has, like so many other areas, no experience in. He trapped the Obama team with his announcement and then pull-back. I think every step of this has been orchestrated in McCain's mind.
Obama's team, along with the media, walked right where McCain wanted them to and then attacked with decisive blows.
Going forward, I am watching with great interest to see how McCain's campaign tactics play out.
We still have to hear about so many ghosts in Obama's closet and I have wondered why the McCain team has kept so quiet about it.
I think we will see in good time.
Posted by: Kelly | September 4, 2008 12:18 PM
I LOVED watching Piper lick her hand and smooth baby Trig's hair!!!!! What a cutie!
I'm excited about the McCain/Palin ticket and SUPER excited about the possibility of Palin as VP!!
Posted by: Beth Byler | September 4, 2008 12:21 PM
I am so delighted with the McCain/Palin campaign.
McCain made a brilliant choice in Sarah Palin. She represents the people better than any female politician I have ever heard.
I noticed that Sarah Palin's children were on the podium throughout her speech. She was obviously confident that they would behave appropriately. She did not keep them backstage to parade out afterwards.
The attacks against the McCain and Palin families will likely increase in intensity and brutality. I hope believers of every flavor will continue to pray.
Posted by: Elizabeth M. Thompson | September 4, 2008 1:58 PM
I also loved little Piper taking care of Trig. So cute!
This is sort of off topic, but I saw something great yesterday. The back seat mirror I got for my daughter had a baby w/ DS as the baby in the advertisement! It was SO great seeing a mainstream company showing one of these children.
Anyways, I just thought that was something you could appreciate.
Posted by: lauren | September 4, 2008 1:59 PM
This country has needed this woman and I'm thrilled that she's in the running! I'm blogging about her today too!
Sue
Posted by: Praise and Coffee | September 4, 2008 2:25 PM
Barbara,
Yours is about the only blog that I read these days. Thank you for your work here.
Posted by: Shelley | September 4, 2008 3:59 PM
While working at a local high school, I became fast friends with some kids who were DS, and I developed a great respect and love for them and they for me. I respected the parents of these kids too, especially the parents of the ones who were present in their kids' lives. Not all were, and I felt really badly for those kids. A mom who has one child with special needs and a busy job might be one thing, but a mom who has two children with special needs (a 17-year-old who is pregnant has special needs, plus if the pregnancy and/or birth goes badly, those needs can be way more than a DS kid can ever have) and whose job calls on her to be constantly at work, sometimes 24 hours a day and out of town and out of the country a lot (a WHOLE LOT) and who doesn't announce that her husband will be home full time with these 2 special needs kids and with the other 3 kids, who also have needs, appears to me to be neglecting her kids. This isn't sexism, I would say the same thing about a man who had 2 kids who were obviously going to need lots of visits to doctors, teachers, social workers, house mothers, tutors, day-care centers, hospitals, and other places and specialists that have to be seen when you are 17 and pregnant or have DS. If his wife wasn't going to stay home and take special care of those 5 kids, I'd feel the same way about him - I'd say he was neglecting his kids.
Posted by: Sarah | September 4, 2008 4:15 PM
I haven't been online in ages, but I told my dh I had to see Barbara Curtis's blog ASAP.
What a miracle. What a blessing God has given us to raise up a modern day Deborah to do what the men won't do. Sure it would be better if there were men who would stand tall and fight for our morals, but, if it takes a lady, God will use her. It's not like she's running for pastor.
I PRAY that many children will live and lives be changed and blessed because of the example of Mrs. Palin and her daughter.
You go, Girl!!!
Posted by: Cheri | September 4, 2008 4:48 PM
I LOVED seeing the family passing the baby around! It was sooooo heartwarming! Even Cindy McCain seemed to really enjoy holding him. He's a cutie!
Hopefully Palin's example will remind us all that all children are truly a gift from God.....I'd like it if Christians would stop giving me a pity party and acting sad for me because I have 4 healthy boys, and no girls. Sheesh. We are still acting like Children are products of our own making..... For goodness sakes!I guess I missed the verse that said you've got to have both genders to be blessed. All children are a gift from the Lord, and I think the bible is pretty clear no that!
I hope Palin's example helps to put an end to infant murder.
Posted by: Lisa | September 4, 2008 4:59 PM
Sarah (and others who wonder how the balance of family and work will play out for Sarah Palin)
Firstly, you can't assume that Trig requires endless trips to hospitals, doctors offices etc. Therapists will come to him until he is three (early intervention law)(Imagine being the therapist to get to make that visit!)
I am mom to four kids, the youngest with DS. My husband travels extensively and is away at least a portion of every week. This type of arrangement is a family commitment and if you work together as a family it becomes your new "normal". When dad is home, the kids get his undivided attention.
When you make a commitment and work together it's amazing what you can do as a family. We have also relocated 5 times and the kids seem to fare well because of our commitment to each other and to making our situation work. All of my children are doing well and working hard to be the best each can be, in school, on the hockey rink (yeah hockey moms!), on the soccer field and at the piano.
I imagine it will be something in reverse for the Palin's, with dad at home.
Posted by: Kelly | September 4, 2008 5:49 PM
I'm so glad you found that picture. I literally burst into tears twice during her speech. Once when she talked of "leading with a servant's heart" (when have you EVER heard a politician say that???) and then when they turned Trig around and we saw his face. I was reminded of when my Henry looked a whole lot like that and the thought of such a beautiful, precious child being presented to America as the normal and acceptable child he IS, made me sob. I tell you, if McCain/Palin is elected, there will be no child more loved by a country as Trig. And that can only mean positive changes for the rest of us!
Posted by: Christy | September 4, 2008 6:01 PM
Sarah,
Regarding Bristol:
I feel that I may face condemnation for this, but I believe it really needs to be said.
A pregnant 17 year old needs the support of her soon to be husband much more than her parents.
I graduated highschool at 16 and got pregnant by my fiance when I was 17 and 3 months. We got married 2 months later. I had a horrible pregnancy and was on bed rest almost the entire time. I hemoraged, my water broke early, and I spent 7 weeks hospitalized before my son was born. Afterwards, I saw my son in the NICU fighting for his life for 7 weeks.
We lived in a tiny apartment, and my (barely 20 y/o)husband worked nights to support us so that he would be able to take me to every doctors appointment necessary.
Where was my mom in all of this? Exactly where I wanted her...barely in the picture. In fact, if anything she was too involved in the entire situation and tried to involve herself in things that were not her business once I was married.
17 is not 13. Gov. Palin will no doubt support her daughter, but the responsibility really rests squarely on the shoulders of Bristol and Levi. I think it is damaging to everyone to infantilize Bristol by suggesting that it will *really* be Gov. Palin who is responsible for her child.
I guess I'm coming at this from a different angle from most people because I was a pregnant teenager, but I am very upset by the assumptions being made by everyone surrounding this situation.
Posted by: lauren | September 4, 2008 7:47 PM
Lauren --
I think I know what you mean, and you are right. I remember with my first, being very cautious about how much I let my mom be involved -- not because I didn't want her around, not because she wouldn't have been helpful, but because I needed to establish my independence and learn to mother my own child. I've been able to let her be much more active since then as I've welcomed more children, because I now have that confidence and my own way of doing things, and because she is more respectful of me as an adult. But that first time, when I was still feeling my way forward and she wasn't really used to treating me as an adult yet, I definitely needed to make that separation. (And BTW, I was 24; this isn't always a teenage pregnancy thing.)
Newt
Posted by: Newt Sherwin | September 5, 2008 1:31 AM
Newt, I've definitely noticed it's gotten much better now that we're firmly established and have had baby # 2. I know from her perspective it must have been really scary letting me go out on my own, apart from just being in the psuedo adult place that college puts one in.
It definitely took finding a balance. I'm hopeful that Bristol and Levi can find this balance on their own, and Gov. Palin will fall in to the wonderful role of Grandma :).
Posted by: lauren | September 5, 2008 11:46 AM
Sorry - this is long overdue. I appreciate everyone who helped track down the transcript and pictures - can only award the first ones:
Mamarachel -for the first link to the transcript earned a book of her choice
Stacy - for the first link to photos earned a complete set of my books.
Please send me your addresses!
Posted by: barbara | September 5, 2008 4:59 PM
I read this post on the twelfth anniversary of my little boy's death. He had DS, too, and I can't tell you how wonderful it is at this time of year to see another little baby with DS so celebrated!
My Christopher had a heart defect, and people wanted us to abort. They didn't want him to live. We gave him that chance, and he had a short but important life.
To have Palin out there giving dignity to all the little children who are born without being "perfect" is such a blessing to me, and heals a little part of my heart!
Visit To Love, Honor and Vacuum today!
Posted by: SheilaG | September 9, 2008 8:44 AM
You're right that this is going to start a national debate. Some think Palin meant what she said about advocating on behalf of parents who have children with special needs. Others think it's a ploy to grab votes.
Did Palin's message convince you to vote for her?
Posted by: Billy | September 9, 2008 3:13 PM
