Alaskan columnist Effie Caldarola wrote it up and I read it in my church paper, the Arlington Catholic Herald. I couldn't find it online:
Over a month ago, her office announced that the 44-year-old and her husband, Todd, were expecting their fifth child in May. It was a secret the beguiling brunette, a runner, managed to keep from even her staff.
Then, April 18, she surprised us again by giving birth a month early to Trig Palin, 6 pounds, 2 ounces. In true Sarah fashion, her amniotic fluid leaked in Texas, she gave a speech at a Republican Governors Association convention as scheduled anyway, and then returned to Alaska to deliver.
Immediately the family made this announcement: "Trig is beautiful and already adored by us. We knew through early testing he would face special challenges, and we feel privileged that God would entrust us with this gift and allow us unspeakable joy as he entered our lives."
Trig Palin has Down syndrome. Early prenatal testing alerted the Palins to this chromosomal abnormality, as it is alerting more and more families in the early stages of pregnancy.
Unfortunately, because of early screening, more children with Down syndrome are aborted and fewer and fewer are being born.
Children with Down syndrome do bring "unspeakable joy" into this world. I know the laughter and blessings my 5-year-old nephew, Ethan, with Down syndrome, has brought to our family. But how do you explain this joy to a perfection-at-any-price world?
Politicians rarely help. How many politicians are ever called upon to really walk the walk in their lives?
....Palin, a politician who has been eloquent in her defense of life before birth, has now proven with her own life how much she truly "walks the walk."
Thank you, Sarah, for a beautiful witness given to us through a little one whose Norse name, Trig, means "brave victory."
