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About

Why do we do this?

Hello. My name is Justin Jilg and I would like to welcome you to DownSyndrome.com. DownSyndrome.com is a website that has the inherent intention of helping, educating, and bringing people together to learn, communicate, and impart knowledge on the condition known as Down Syndrome.

I have never seriously embarked on creating a personal website before. I certainly didn’t have aspirations to create a site so ambitious as this one but something happened to me on February 21st, 2005 that changed me forever and made the idea of not creating this site not an option.

On that day my wife (Rebecca) gave birth to our first son who we named Theodore Patrick (Teddy). As you have probably guessed by now, Teddy has Down Syndrome and because of that little extra bit of genetic matter in his 21st chromosome, our view of the World has changed forever. Just like any parent of any typical child, we have taken on the goal as Teddy’s parents of making his experiences fulfilling and rewarding and his community a little more accommodating.

As of the time of this post, I am 35 years old and I work for one of the most successful Internet companies in the World. Because of my proximity to technology, especially the domain name and hosting industry, I am lucky to have a perspective on the amazing things that can be accomplished online; especially how it is possible to communicate effectively with people all over the World. It is because of that proximity and knowledge of the power of the Internet that I felt compelled to work on this site and use my expertise to try to impart important information, research, and the experiences of a global community to anyone that is interested in the issues relating to Down Syndrome.

I very much welcome you to participate in this community. Please feel free to contribute your personal experiences, photos, stories, etc (I would continue to provide various vehicles to do so over time) and help me make this as rich an environment as any online.

Sincerely,

Justin