When Erika woke up in a hospital bed to learn her daughter was born with Down syndrome, she didn't know what to think. She didn't know anyone who encountered this particular life experience.

"I remember asking myself, will she learn?" said the mother of two special needs children during a phone interview with LifeMyWay.

Erika soon realized that not only would her youngest daughter learn, but she would too.

"She is just an amazing, full of energy little girl and she brightens our day every day," she said. "Having two special needs kids can be a challenge. At first it was education and figuring out what this means. You go through a 'Why did this happen' thing but then you wake up and you have these wonderful kids and they have the greatest personalities and they are real people. You see that's why it happened because they are wonderful people like everyone else."

Erika's oldest daughter, who was born with an unknown genetic condition, has learned speech, small motor and physical skills through the Early Intervention program. Erika's youngest daughter, who has Down syndrome, has a speech therapist and participates in two physical therapy sessions every week to help her severe hypotonia (muscle weakness that results in too much flexibility.) She gets stronger little by little and she can sing the ABC's all the way through.

Erika says the early intervention programs have been a "godsend." While grateful for her daughter's access to such programs, she worries like any mother, particularly about the future.

"I don't know what it's going to be like for my children when they're older. They're young now but I think, how will they make money? What happens if they make too much money and aren't eligible for services?" she wondered out loud. "Those things are in the back of your mind."

We bet other moms can relate.

To view Erika's profile, click here. To tell your own story, please visit www.LifeMyWay.org/TellUs

Erika's New Year's Resolution:  MuchBetter.org

Erika and her husband are starting a Web site called MuchBetter.org where people with disabilities and their families can make recommendations and search the stories of local people. Erika hopes to launch the site as a positive way to connect with each other this summer.

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