As time passed, Josh started to improve, and the questioning became more pointed. As wary homeschoolers, we wanted to keep our options open until we knew exactly what early intervention was, and what it entailed from a legal standpoint. But we also knew enough to act interested so they wouldn’t think we weren’t going to take their advice. So we started asking each one what exactly they thought Joshua would need.

They were pretty much in agreement: he would need occupational, physical and speech therapy several times each week, plus early intervention classes from birth to age three, and then special education preschool from three until he reached school age. They also advised us to get in touch with a Down Syndrome support group for his socialization needs, and a charitable group that raised funds to help out families with special needs kids.

I couldn’t imagine the kind of life they were describing. We were already very busy with our three other children. How could we possibly find the time for all these therapies? I pictured our lives turned upside down as we dropped everything we had been doing in order to cart our little baby to therapists and classes and group meetings. We were told he would also need to be seen by several other professionals, including a cardiologist and a pediatric ophthalmologist. It sounded as though we would have to spend every waking hour doing what needed to be done for him. There wouldn’t be time for anything or anyone else.

One night on the way home from the hospital, I turned to my husband and cried,

"I don’t want us to be the Down Syndrome Family!"

He felt the same way, and reassured me that we would not allow that to happen. That was the beginning of our determination to provide a normal life for Joshua, and for his siblings. Even though the professionals were telling us that these therapies were his only chance for making progress despite his disabilities, we felt that there had to be another way to help him without hurting his brother and sisters.

We started by calling HSLDA (Home School Legal Defense Association). We had been members for several years, but never called them for help until we had Joshua. The Special Needs Coordinator told me she would have to call me back with the information, but in the meantime, to be careful not to sign anything that had to do with therapies or early intervention. That startled us. Why did we have to be so cautious?

The next day she called back, and we spent over an hour talking. I learned so much from her that day. She told me that in the state of Illinois, if we signed paperwork putting our son into early intervention, we were actually hooking him up into the public school system. Depending on the documents used, we could be signing away our right to make decisions about his education until he was 21. No wonder she said not to sign anything.

She then explained that early intervention was a catch-all term for putting a new baby with disabilities into state-supported programs featuring recommended therapies and other stimulation. The babies were assessed regularly, and then at age three, funneled into a special ed. preschool, run by our local school district.