HOLLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) — Down syndrome has not had the outcome the Eppard family feared it would.
The Ottawa County family didn't find out until their son was born that he has a third copy of chromosome 21, and had no idea what his life with Down syndrome would look like.
Aiden suffered medical complications to start and underwent multiple heart surgeries.
His parents were also worried about ensuring their older daughter also got enough attention.
"I think this is true to most families of children with special needs… how do you balance your time between both kids and give them equal love and support?" Jane Eppard explained.
The mom is now hoping to ease other families fears of the unknown by sharing her experiences raising a child with down syndrome.
"(The biggest surprise was) how, once we got through the medical needs, how normal our family really was, and how Aiden is just a typical teenager. I don't want to say the road wasn't challenging, but I didn't know it would be as positive and affirming, and that we'd have this much hope,” Jane Eppard said.
Aiden is now a seventh-grader at Macatawa Bay Middle School in Holland Township, where he takes mostly general education classes. There is a second instructor who sits with him and helps him with some of the coursework and he takes modified tests, but Aiden learns the same
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