Caring for Jo
Verena’s entire schedule surrounds her three children, two who have Down syndrome. 22 weeks into her first pregnancy she and her husband found out their child may have Trisomy-21 (Down syndrome). They completely changed their lives: they stopped building a home, Verena quit her full-time job, met with a geneticist and began to plan for the new life ahead. Their youngest child, Jo, is five years old and also has Down syndrome.
Jo, Verena says “is much more of a handful, although, he is the glue to our family. My biggest challenge is that he is extremely stubborn - he simply does what he wants when he wants. To be his caregiver (and his mom of course) has required me to have 5x the patience, and a lot of creativity to get him to do things he doesn’t want to.”
“It’s the life we never expected, but it’s beautiful–you just adapt.”
Verena’s hopes for their future are that all her children are a part of their community and contribute to society. That they are happy, live the life they want and do not have limitations or at least that she has inspired them with the spirit to fight against any limitations.
