Alex Varnell
In 1987, one day before Thanksgiving Day, Alex was born. Just what we wanted - a boy. Well, maybe not exactly like we had expected. His birth and diagnosis of Down syndrome was something that we were not prepared for. This was something that my family and I knew nothing about. We were not prepared and this seemed to be more than we thought we could accept. We each handled it differently from myself to my husband to grandparents and his 11-year-old sister, Mandy. 
Alex is now 16 years old and I can hardly believe that I would have ever said this, but I would not change a thing about him. He is just the most wonderful person I have ever known. He has changed and changes our lives daily in ways we never knew possible. He does everything at his own pace and isn’t that what we all do anyway? He is so proud of each accomplishment and we share that with him. He is loving and kind but he is also a teenager and is stubborn, talks back and thinks he knows everything. The one thing that we especially love about Alex is his sense of humor. He always has something funny or uplifting to say about almost everything. 
What we thought was life’s heaviest burden is actually one of our most treasured blessings. 

Frank & Shelia Varnell 
(601) 825-8704
Website sponsored by Members of the Central Mississippi Down Syndrome Society
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