{"id":49688,"date":"2014-05-19T01:21:35","date_gmt":"2014-05-19T05:21:35","guid":{"rendered":"\/news\/?p=49688"},"modified":"2014-11-27T12:10:25","modified_gmt":"2014-11-27T17:10:25","slug":"open-hearts-couple-adopts-baby-with-down-syndrome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/open-hearts-couple-adopts-baby-with-down-syndrome\/","title":{"rendered":"Open hearts: Couple adopts baby with Down syndrome"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><p>California couple\u00a0<span style=\"color: #000000;\">Andy and Mercedes Lara knew from the beginning that they wanted to adopt children. Mercedes has a particular place in her heart for special-needs children and has spent the last decade\u00a0working with individuals who have special needs. When she told her husband that she wanted to adopt a baby who has Down syndrome, she knew, from experience in her line of work, what she was asking for. And he agreed. Together, they chose to spend the rest of their lives caring for and loving a person who would always need them. This child <em>may<\/em> never move out and become independent &#8211; and the Laras are fine with that. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">More than fine &#8211; beyond accepting the diagnosis of Down syndrome, the Laras went in search of it. And they found their dream child in Sunflower Mae, adopted\u00a0at birth last summer.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" lang=\"en\"><p><a href=\"http:\/\/t.co\/Zdebu99Sje\">pic.twitter.com\/Zdebu99Sje<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Sunflower Mae Lara (@hooray4sunny) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hooray4sunny\/statuses\/455073787550380032\">April 12, 2014<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>In this video, Andy and Mercedes document their journey to meet and adopt Sunflower Mae on the day she was born.<\/p>\n<p><strong>[youtube http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=2lIZCowRy28&amp;w=560&amp;h=315]<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Unlike the parents and doctors of the many children who are <a href=\"http:\/\/abcnews.go.com\/Health\/w_ParentingResource\/down-syndrome-births-drop-us-women-abort\/story?id=8960803\">aborted<\/a> after a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome, the Laras believe that a baby with Down syndrome is a blessing from God. On <a href=\"http:\/\/instagram.com\/p\/l0V15INqGj\/\">Instagram<\/a>, Mercedes wrote the following message to Sunflower:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color: #222222;\">Sunflower before we knew you we prayed for you! And I promise to always pray for you. In a broken world God uses to bring LIGHT! Joy overflows from you and their are no words for how beautiful you truly are! Always be strong and courageous my darling&lt;3 we love you &lt;3 Mom and Dad<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>California couple\u00a0Andy and Mercedes Lara knew from the beginning that they wanted to adopt children. Mercedes has a particular place in her heart for special-needs children and has spent the last decade\u00a0working with individuals who have special needs. When she told her husband that she wanted to adopt a baby who has Down syndrome, she [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":152,"featured_media":56420,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Open hearts: Couple adopts baby with Down syndrome - Live Action News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/open-hearts-couple-adopts-baby-with-down-syndrome\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Open hearts: Couple adopts baby with Down syndrome - Live Action News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"California couple\u00a0Andy and Mercedes Lara knew from the beginning that they wanted to adopt children. Mercedes has a particular place in her heart for special-needs children and has spent the last decade\u00a0working with individuals who have special needs. When she told her husband that she wanted to adopt a baby who has Down syndrome, she [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/open-hearts-couple-adopts-baby-with-down-syndrome\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Live Action News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/EnriquezLauren\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-05-19T05:21:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-11-27T17:10:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/sunflower-mae.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"671\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"315\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lauren Enriquez\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@https:\/\/twitter.com\/lnenriquez\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lauren Enriquez\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/open-hearts-couple-adopts-baby-with-down-syndrome\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/open-hearts-couple-adopts-baby-with-down-syndrome\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Lauren Enriquez\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8c47fbbac960697f2ead6fd958b91f15\"},\"headline\":\"Open hearts: Couple adopts baby with Down syndrome\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-05-19T05:21:35+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-11-27T17:10:25+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/open-hearts-couple-adopts-baby-with-down-syndrome\/\"},\"wordCount\":293,\"commentCount\":22,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Issues\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/open-hearts-couple-adopts-baby-with-down-syndrome\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/open-hearts-couple-adopts-baby-with-down-syndrome\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/open-hearts-couple-adopts-baby-with-down-syndrome\/\",\"name\":\"Open hearts: Couple adopts baby with Down syndrome - Live Action News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-05-19T05:21:35+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-11-27T17:10:25+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/open-hearts-couple-adopts-baby-with-down-syndrome\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/open-hearts-couple-adopts-baby-with-down-syndrome\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/open-hearts-couple-adopts-baby-with-down-syndrome\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Open hearts: Couple adopts baby with Down syndrome\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Live Action News\",\"description\":\"Covering Human Rights, Abortion, &amp; 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