Bloom: by Kelle Hampton

I have followed Kelle's blog (she is down in my blog list - Enjoying the Small Things) since I stumbled upon Nella's birth story 2 years ago, shortly after Nella was born. Kelle has the gusto every parent of a child with Down syndrome wishes they could muster, let me rephrase, I wish I could!... She has advocated, she has donated and she has thrived, spreading the word about our beautiful children to the world. Now she has done something that I could only dream of, she's wrote a book, a memoir, Bloom: Finding Beauty in the Unexpected. A must for anyone who is a Momma or knows someone who is a Momma of  Perfection Made with Forty-Seven Chromosomes...

Love me. Love me. I'm not what you expected, but oh, please love me. That was the most defining moment of my life. That was the beginning of my story.

From the outside looking in, Kelle Hampton had the perfect life: a beautiful two-year-old daughter, a loving husband, a thriving photography career, and great friends. When she learned she was pregnant with her second child, she and her husband, Brett, were ecstatic. Her pregnancy went smoothly and the ultrasounds showed a beautiful, healthy, high-kicking baby girl.

But when her new daughter was placed in her arms in the delivery room, Kelle knew instantly that something was wrong. Nella looked different than her two-year-old sister, Lainey, had at birth. As she watched friends and family celebrate with champagne toasts and endless photographs, a terrified Kelle was certain that Nella had Down syndrome—a fear her pediatrician soon confirmed. Yet gradually Kelle's fear and pain were vanquished by joy, as she embraced the realization that she had been chosen to experience an extraordinary and special gift.

With lyrical prose and gorgeous full-color photography, Bloom takes readers on a wondrous journey through Nella's first year of life—a gripping, hilarious, and intensely poignant trip of transformation in which a mother learns that perfection comes in all different shapes. It is a story about embracing life and really living it, of being fearless and accepting difference, of going beyond constricting definitions of beauty, and of the awesome power of perspective. As Kelle writes, "There is us. Our Family. We will embrace this beauty and make something of it. We will hold our precious gift and know that we are lucky."