Alex and Holly Graham of Medicine Hat, Alta. are two loving parents of a happy little boy.
The couple adopted two-year-old Jaxson, who was born with Down syndrome, when he was just six weeks old.
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Now, they want to add a second child with the condition to their family.
“He’s magical,” Holly said of Jaxson. “There’s just something so special about him and I just couldn’t imagine not having that in our life.”
“There’s just something so special about him and I just couldn’t imagine not having that in our life.”
The couple specifically asked for a child with Down syndrome as they went through the adoption process.
“We didn’t want a healthy or typical child if it was offered to us, we just wanted a kid with Down syndrome,” Alex said.
“We had friends and physicians and other people kind of asking us, like, ‘Do you realize what you’re getting into? Like, why would you choose that?’ And we were like, ‘This is exactly why we’re doing it.'”
The parents want to give Jaxson someone he can relate to as he grows up.
But adoption is expensive. So the couple has set up a GoFundMe page asking for help to cover adoption fees.
The Grahams are also choosing to adopt privately after they learned more about how government adoption works.
“We know there is way more in care that have Down syndrome and we asked, why is that?”
“Our worker came up to us and said, ‘Listen I’ve looked into it. Adoption Alberta, they have adopted out two children with Down syndrome in seven years,'” Alex said.
“We know there is way more in care that have Down syndrome and we asked, why is that? And she said that they just end up placed in medical foster homes and they don’t get put up for adoption because it’s easier to deal with them that way.”
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They want people to look at Down syndrome as a “positive thing, and not something that is so scary.”
“And it is scary, there is a lot to do with health and stuff, but it’s amazing,” Alex said.