{"id":310735,"date":"2024-04-20T13:50:12","date_gmt":"2024-04-20T18:50:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=310735"},"modified":"2024-04-24T15:11:46","modified_gmt":"2024-04-24T20:11:46","slug":"adoption-down-syndrome-ignited-mission-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/adoption-down-syndrome-ignited-mission-family\/","title":{"rendered":"Living big: How adoption and Down syndrome ignited a mission in one family"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Kirstin Czernek, 37, and her husband, Tomas, began building their family six years ago with an adoption through foster care. <\/span><\/p>\n

After Mia, now eight, was placed with them, they were told Mia\u2019s mother was pregnant again. Kai, now six, was born just six weeks later. The Czerneks adopted both siblings.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When Kai was a year old, Kirstin discovered she was pregnant. Doctors informed the couple that their baby had a 100% chance of being born with Down syndrome, and would have a heart condition requiring surgery after birth.<\/span><\/p>\n

Kirstin told <\/span>People,<\/span><\/a> “It was something that had never crossed my mind. I was young, I was 29. It wasn’t even on my radar.” For the rest of her pregnancy, she allowed herself “to grieve the child I thought I was going to have.”<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As soon as Aria, now five, was born, everything changed for the Czernek family. <\/span><\/p>\n

“I fell instantly in love,\u201d Kirstin shared, adding, “Aria loves with everything in her. Everything she does is exaggerated. A jump, a smile, a laugh. That turns off in most of us. We stop living so big as we age. We tone down. Individuals with Down syndrome, they don’t tone down. Everything is big, everything is special.”<\/span><\/p>\n