Looking back

I have noticed a number of post "looking back" to the "early" days

Jen has reposted the snowglobe story.

Nicole is bouncing back and forth from today to the "early" days.

this got me to thinking about why Jen and I started the blog in the first place. I think I mentioned at first it was to keep family and friends updated since Sydney was in the NICU for the 1st two weeks. that was the start but not the START.

we really decided long before Sydney came, but after we got the news, that we wante to share ur story and journey with other families. I'm a part time internet junkie, when i don't know the answer to something or even when I do to ensure I am right I turn to google, and other search engines. So it should come as no surprise that when we found out we were going to have a baby with DS I went straight for the web. If you have done this, or if you haven't done it lately... try it (later) go to Google or your favorite search engine and search for Downs, Down syndrom, T-21, Trisonomy 21 etc. What you will find, very prevelently is the clinical, medical, cold, often too cold, hard facts about what down syndome is and all the things that MIGHT happen to your baby and all the challenges your child will have, in many ways it is depressing.

So we set out to create a place that not only talks about our journey, but more importantly our journey WITH God. thus http://downrightfaith.com was created. it was originally a brief introduction with a link to a photo album and a link to the blog. we have since combined the two and automaticly direct everything to http://downrightfatith.com/weblog.

Needless to say there are MANY websites that tell the factful but loving side of live with DS. where you can learn the joys, the heartbreaks, the ups and downs, hear from mothers and fathers (mothers mostly.... come on dads!!) from the kids and young adults with downs from their syblings. the issue is these sites are hard to find, you have to dig or know where to look, or know someone who knows.

The recent bill that was passed will better help ensure doctors tell both sides of the story to expecting families. And their are many great organizations and websites, in our area it is the Down Syndrom Association of Central Texas (DSACT). Many of these sites are easier to find for several reasons, they include a part of the country and they are linked to by many sites. so when people refine their search, from Down Syndrome to down Syndrome central texas or down syndrome texas or down syndrome Austin etc they will likely find DSACT. These organizations then often have links to family websites etc that I talked about earlier.

Okay i know i know what's the point. the point is there are MANY factors that get links moved up in the Google results criteria. Several of the important ones include page loading time, content, how many sites are backlinking to you, their quality and much more...

page load time is up to your service provider
conten is up to you
how may sites are backlinking to you an their quality are up to other people.... for your site. But for their site... you are other people :-)

so my challenge to all who are reading this is two fold:
1. more dad's tell us how you feel
2. link to each other... it will help people find you.