Pure Love. Unfiltered. Unconditional. True

Sign made by Kevin as he said he knows I love stickers! It was then up to Kevin to ring all the family and Coraline's Godmother to let them know she had been born. He said his calls went like this, "Firstly, just to let you know Liz is OK and recovering well from the caesarean and the baby is doing well and secondly we've just been told there's a very strong possibility Coraline has trisomy 21, Down's Syndrome, there will be genetic tests to confirm this and there is a strong potential for a congenital heart defect. With a quick chaser, "all we want to hear is Congratulations on the birth of your baby! We're going to be very positive about this. She's our beautiful little girl and we love her". My Dad said a week later after he came to visit us and meet Coraline, "My respect for him has always been high but now it's stratospheric. He's set the tone for us all. You've got a treasure there. He's just the right mix of quick witted and immensely practical".

Kevin was convinced that once I visited Coraline in the ICU the tide would turn. So we got me there in a wheelchair as I still couldn't walk more than a few steps. She looked so peaceful lying there on her own, as though she had an immense steadfastness about her. I realised when she came out to me, with such trust and smallness, doing skin to skin, that she was ours and we were hers and we would live this together, and we would be there to love and encourage her to be all she can be. My older brother visited that night and said, "this will be the making of you". And the words my old life coach had sent to me began to take on meaning and shine: "You will soon see what a gift children with Down's Syndrome are to their parents and to this world. It's a huge huge gift to you both once the shock has passed." "Pure love. Unfiltered. Unconditional. True." "Life's biggest gifts are often most unexpected happenings. Life is never how we think it's going to be. Your baby will teach you unconditional love. Unfiltered, simple beingness." "And if you let her, she will also teach you how to love and accept yourself even more. That's her gift to you." "Coraline is so lucky that you are her parents. Already, you are just accepting what is, and allowing the gifts of that to flow to you. Opening your heart to unconditional is really the only true purpose of life, and the reason we are all here."