We would like to invite you to join our family in raising money for the Madison Area Down Syndrome Society. Many of you helped us last year and you blew us away with your generosity. If you are free on October 13th, we would love it if you joined us for the annual Step Up for Down Syndrome walk. 

It is amazing how Ella has changed in 5 yrs. She will start Kindergarten in less than two weeks and is as sassy as ever. Health-wise, she is doing great, but is still lagging on her verbal skills. Sarah and I can't wait until she can tell us what she is thinking because that little girl is always chattering on about something. I just know it is something very important or very hilarious-either way we look forward to the day she can say it clearly.

I have two years left as a board member on the Madison Area Down Syndrome Society (MADSS) and we have some great things planned for our community. This year's walk will be a kick-off for MADSS 's new service programs. The MADSS board is starting down a path of creating an awareness center that will not only offer families a location to meet, but it will also offer programs that are therapeutic in nature, life skill training and literacy classes. This type of center will have a huge impact for all age groups of people with Down syndrome and we are very excited to see how this type of center can impact the community as a whole.

As a side note, it always amazes Sarah and I on how small the Down Syndrome "world" is in Madison. We are constantly running into old friends or acquaintances who have a family member or who knows a friend that has a child with Down Syndrome. Another one of these occurrences happened this week at the MADSS annual picnic. I ran into a guy who lived two doors down from me my freshman year at UW. He and his wife are expecting a child with Down syndrome in October. It was good to see him again, but even more importantly, it strengths both of our families support networks to have another family to share experiences and hardships with as our children grow-up. The Lord works in wonderful ways.

Notes from MADSS:

Please stay tuned as we will have contests almost every week to help inspire your friends, families and co-workers to Support 21!  Winners will have the chance to win awesome prizes like trips and an iPad3.  Click here to check out early contests, choose a prize and email everyone you know about it.

If you prefer, you can also raise money offline by using this pledge form here.

11th Annual Step Up Walk for Down Syndrome Benefiting the Madison Area Down Syndrome Society
Date and Time: 10/13/2012, 1:30pm.
Location: Monona Terrace, Madison, WI
 We'll walk from the Monona Terrace to the State Capitol and back to the Terrace.

Music by The Pool Boys!

 We'll have a silent auction, obstacle course, face painting, and much more!

Oh and Bucky Badger is expected!