A few years ago when I started dating my wife, I was supposed to meet her family. She had to sit me down for a conversation about what to expect. See, her sister is on the autism spectrum. I don't know the proper word for it, but it's severe. She's non-vocal. We had a long talk about the hardships her family went through, that her sister went through, growing up. It became really emotional for both of us, but I have a real strong bond with her family now.

Fast forward a couple years and we decided we wanted to try having our own kids. The wife got pregnant basically right away. We were thrilled, couldn't be happier, started making all sorts of plans. During one of her prenatal screening exams, they told us they found something wrong with the bloodwork. Low levels of some protein. We wanted to be sure, so we got a special ultrasound done. It came back bad news. Our unborn child almost certainly had Downs syndrome.

We'd talked about it before, but sort of danced around the issue. What would we actually do if something like this happened to us? She knew what it was like growing up like that. The hardships the baby and everyone around it would have to go through. It took a lot of soul searching that week, but we made an appointment to end the pregnancy. We don't regret it.

We have a one year old now and we couldn't be happier. My only wish is that some of these technologies and medical tests were available years ago. So that other parents would have an option, and wouldn't have to go through that.

Like your parents had to.