Just a little about us!

I am my daddy's only child. Lucky, lucky me! However I do have two half brothers, one that lives close to us with his wife and children and then one brother as I mentioned previously that is differently abled and lives with my other. Both of which are much older than me to the tune of 15-18 years. But with my differently abled brother he always lived with us growing up or as far back as I can remember anyway so I was obviously 18 years younger than he was and rode the church bus every Sunday together with him. I was like a pit bull dog - if you mess with my brother then you had then 5/6/7/8 year old sister to deal with and even though we were going to church - when you messed with him this little girl turned in to a "demon" LOL. So it didn't happen often but seems our world has come a long way in that there is a lot more inclusion than I can ever remember there being back when I was growing up and it wasn't that long ago so don't even go there :).

My husband has three children from a previous marriage, Steven - 13, Kevin - 11 and Ryan - 10. All of which are our hearts. We don't get to spend much time with the middle one however the other two we see quite regularly and they enjoy lots of things - of course video games, fishing, boating, bowling, skating, watching movies. Family time is important at our house and when they are here we attempt to have a "family night" where we all watch a movie or do something that is fun together and it has worked well for us.

The boys, especially Ryan is quite excited about the idea of having a new sister. Ryan wants to read to her which is great. When the social worker asked Steven what he thought about it - Steven's reply was "I think it's quite nice actually" - he is so funny - so grown.

Anyway so that is the jest of it our lives together, as husband and wife, pretty much make some people want to gag because we have been so goo goo and ga ga over each other. We were married in June of 2006 and we don't have annual anniversaries like most we have them every month. We never say a cross word to each other. When we have had maybe 5 disagreements in our entire marriage it has had to do with struggles with his ex wife and her very different ways but we've always been on the same page and know each others thoughts before we even know we are about to think it - now that's close.

Our goal is to make this transition easy on Ivanna and the boys and show her love like she has never been privy to. Family living is what the Stratton family is all about.

We started helping out the local DS group - Gulf Coast Down Syndrome Society in September of 2008. I became their cheerleader and the continue forward person. When they said they wanted to do something or that they were going to do something Darlena was right there to hound them all the way to the finish line. Only because I had more time on my hands than they did :) and that was my way of supporting. My husband always tells me he knows the names of more children with DS than any other child I told him that was completely ok. These families and their children or adult children have taught us so much and to see their interaction is nothing more than amazing. My friend has given me a new word in that there are a lot of people that are "differently abled" so that is the term I use. When I hear someone say "normal child" I then like to ask in return "what is the definition of normal?". Makes for a good conversation. Well this is one more heck of a support system and we wouldn't trade our road for anything. Ivanna is very lucky in that she will be walking in to a world full of people that can't wait to assist in her road of success and she will have a world of little and big sisters and brothers that will help her with that as well because I feel like we are more than friends and acquaintances in this organization we have developed our own little community families and it is remarkable. Well, enough, cause I could just go on and on and on and on. But these familes do have a lot to teach they "typical" family. So thus, we are well on our way in the adoption process so when you go to bed each night say a little prayer.