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The Daily WOW: Raising 5 Kids With Down Syndrome, “They’re Just Kids.”

Adorable kid down_ shutterstock_175010618_Denis Kuvaev

Shutterstock/Denis Kuvaev-cc

The Daily Catch - published on 04/21/16

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Too often, the challenges of raising a child with Down syndrome will lead frightened parents to choose abortion over life. Ironically, their fear is usually born of ignorance because they’ve never known someone with Down, and the prevailing custom of aborting babies diagnosed with an extra chromosome means they never will. It’s a self-perpetuating cycle. Meet Leah Spring, who delivered a daughter with Down syndrome, discovered “an angel” and went on, with her husband, to adopt four more.

Read how these children have given her the strength to fight through breast cancer, here…

Inside this yellow house on the top of a hill in Eagan, Spring, 47, lines up the slices of bread and listens as two of her five at-home children work on her Mother’s Day card. “Put: ‘I love you, Mom,’ ” says Angela, 18, as Axel, 14, pulls out the Crayola markers. “And: ‘I like you, Mom.’ ” ‘You’re my favorite mom.’ ” ‘You’re the best waitress.’ “Put ‘best chef.’ “And ‘best queen of all.’ ” When the best queen of all is ready to serve dinner, her assistant, Dean Ellingson — otherwise known as Dad — rounds up Abel, 12, and Audrey and Asher, both 10. Some might look at this family and see five children with Down syndrome. Not Spring. “I just see kids,” she said.

Read the whole thing.

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