Giving ALL Glory to God

This was the sermon at today's church service. It really made me think about myself and if I give enough Glory to God on a daily basis. And honestly, there are many times in life that I may forget to do this as I should. Having a wonderful husband and five beautiful children is something that I try remember to thank the Lord for daily. Something that many may find difficult to understand is that I also thank the Lord for the opportunity and honor given to me to raise two beautiful identical twin boys both with Down Syndrome and PDD Autism. It may seem hard to believe that I am thankful for such a thing. This has made me grow as a Christian, wife, mother and friend more that I would have without them.

Statistically there are very few sets of identical twins both with Down Syndrome. This was posted on a Yahoo Group board I belong to and I've saved it as there IS NO real study on the frequency of identical twins with Down Syndrome published anywhere. This is interesting reading and again I give all Glory to God for allowing me the opportunity to be given these wonderful boys. Again this is just an estimation from another parent, but still very interesting:


The estimated frequency of twins with Down syndrome can be found with simple math.

Roughly:

Fraternal twins (not counting in vitro impregnations) occur here in every 100 births. In some areas of the world the rate is higher, because the mothers more frequently ovulate two eggs. It can be an inherited trait.

Down syndrome births are estimated at one in every 800. The interesting thing, I have heard, is that roughly half of all spontaneously aborted fetuses have Down syndrome, so the rate of conception is higher. (What outrages me--and I am sure most of us in this group--is that a frequent decision to electively abort is that the fetus has been found to have DS. I just went on a Buddy Walk, laughing all the way with some wonderful people who had the good fortune not to be aborted.) Now, off the soap box...

The occurrence of fraternal twins born with Down syndrome is 100 X 800, or 80,000.

The frequency of identical twins is constant worldwide--about 1 in every 300 births. Three hundred times 800 equals 240,000. With about 4 million births in the U.S. every year, about a dozen of them involve twins with Down syndrome.

You ask about the birth of fraternal twins both with DS? One hundred times 800 X 800 again for the second child. In the U.S., that would occur about once every 16 years.

Challenge me on this if you can find better data.


Thank you again Lord for this privilege ;)

~Stacy

EDITED to add that up statistic is for identical twins with DS, we have an Autism diagnosis ontop of that so we're even more rare.