Aria

Written February 2020

by Jenny Davis, Aria’s mom

Aria will be 7 on the 6th of February and she has Trisomy 21, commonly known as Down Syndrome.

Aria has a really easy personality and generally loves life. She is curious, funny, and honestly brings light to everyone she meets. People are drawn to her. She is agreeable and redirectable, but can put up a stink if she’s being directed away from her snacks!

Aria lives and breaths for dance. She has a dance class once a week, but spends a lot of time watching, memorizing, and recreating dance videos on YouTube. She has a great memory and can learn a dance quickly. She also loves to sing, and she really loves to play with things that match. For example, condiment bottles out of the fridge, or spice jars from the cabinet, or even batteries. She lines them up in a circle and makes them do a dance off. She has quite a vivid imagination! 

She loves her 22 year old sister and her 17 year old brother more than anything, and they adore her, too. She also loves her mom, dad, grandparents, 17 cousins, and her best friends Savanah and Serenity (pictured below). 

Aria’s strengths are in her patience and her persistence. She will practice something, without frustration, until she figures it out. 

One of the personal challenges we have is that at times she isn’t very resilient. As a parent of a child whose disability is literally written on her face, you hope that she will be surrounded by people who like her and want to be good to her, but you never actually consider how in getting that wish, it can actually be a double edged sword, because people are drawn to her and really like her, and she has that adorable face, she doesn’t get resistance very often. When another child doesn’t bend to her will, she can get upset and pout for a time before she shakes off that funk. So, resiliency is something that we are working on. 

We are not really sure what she wants to be when she grows up. She would probably say Actor, Dancer, or Mommy. 

My hopes for Aria are the same as most parents. I want her to be happy, healthy, and independent. I hope she finds love, has great friends, has dreams that she chases, and dreams that come true. More immediate hopes are that she gets better at reading and writing and her speech continues to become clearer. I know that the world will give her a lot more credit, hold her accountable, and have expectations of her if she can speak clearly and make herself heard.