The Many Faces of Down Syndrome

I’ll be honest – this call for photos for Down Syndrome Awareness Month was kind of an afterthought, triggered by Ellen’s recent Parents post. But I am SO. GLAD. I did it, because now my blog is filled with all of these beautiful faces. How about that handsome guy, Troy (and his handsome pup), up top?

You might recognize Alec – his family was passing near Mayberry not long ago and we met for breakfast at the Cracker Barrel.

Alex is a local boy – the kids and I see him every morning when I drop Sarah Kate off at school, and he greets us out the car window.

Brunson’s photo makes me laugh – Nathan has driven his Power Wheels 4-wheeler into our fence countless times (while being followed by the dog).

Sweet Colton in the sand…which reminds me, I need to vacuum my bedroom. Nathan played in the sandbox at school on Thursday and I took his shoes off in my room.

Darcie is the cutest pumpkin I’ve seen in a long time!

You may remember Ethan, Nathan’s carnival games partner, from last year’s Buddy Walk.

What a fun-loving little dude Jack seems to be!

I hope Jackson is better at soccer than Nathan was.

I love seeing buddies with their siblings, like Kyler and his brothers.

I swear, Katherine Eileen could be Nathan’s younger sister – the hair, the expression, the mischievous twinkle in the eye…

Lexi and Lila are sisters – aren’t they adorable in their matching outfits?

I’m a sucker for little kids in glasses, and Mary-Lynn is rocking hers!

All babies are cute, but Olivia is ADORBS!

Yep, that’s MY Nathan, but I’m including it because when I put out the call for buddy photos, my friend Katie shared this photo of HER buddy. It was taken two years ago (almost to the day) at her wedding.

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Thank you all so, so much for sharing photos of your buddies with me and my readers. This collection of images demonstrates how diverse they really are – there’s no doubt it’s a myth that people with Down syndrome all look alike. But, of course, you already knew that. 🙂