Thank you for #23. It brought tears to my eyes. :)
A beautiful and perfect response!
But I won't say raising a DS child is harder than a mainstream kid.
When my son was small, I will concede it was slightly more difficult to take care of him than our other babies. He wore a diaper longer, needed to be carried longer, and was on the whole, more physically tiring for us than his siblings. But I still wouldn't call it difficult. And then, of course, there are the surgeries. My son, like many DS kids, had to undergo heart surgery three times. Surgery on a child is tough on any family.
However, and I say this with all sincerity - it would be easier (and more fulfilling) to have half a dozen Downs teenagers, than one average teen.