Know something cool and interesting? Our Grown Ups and Downs Facebook Page now has over 1000 followers and the #1 city for our “likes” is, as you may expect, Omaha. The #2 city? London. I’ll tell you one of the reasons why – because we have made some very good friends, who we have yet to meet, across the great pond. One of them, you are going to meet today, as part of our What Are The Odds Series to introduce some of the diverse families in our community!
Paul, Emily’s dad, writes a great blog and is also, as a matter of fact, known to root for the Nebraska Cornhuskers Football team, at least via Twitter. Yes, friends, it is a small, small, world. Without further ado – let’s me introduce you.
Do you have a book or a blog? The name of it. The link. Your SN links. The audience you hope to reach is…?
Yes! I have a blog called Orange Juice Flavour Sky – www.orangejuiceflavoursky.blogspot.co.uk Twitter:@OrangeJuiceSky FB: www.facebook.com/orangejuiceflavoursky
This is about my daughter Emily who is 22 and has Down syndrome. We were driving along and Emily shouted from the back of the car, “Look the sky is orange juice flavour” – we’d completely missed a beautiful sunset but Emily opened our eyes to it. She’s been opening our eyes to beautiful things all her life! I realised that day that she is teaching me so much, I wanted a place to capture those lessons and if they can be a resource for others that’s great. My primary audience is …..erm…now let me see…..oh yes……the whole world!! – there’s something for the whole of humanity to learn here!!
Let’s see what Paul rolled:
From this one word prompt either write or send a picture reply: A lucky day
Sunshine, family, ocean, Cornwall (south-west coast of the UK) – walking through the shallows allowing the wind to blow past where my hair used to be – perfect!
Do you have a child with DS? How old were you when your child was born?
Yes, Emily who is 22. I was 24 when she was born – gosh it seems like a long time since I was 24!
In your house, who is the King? The Queen? The Jack? The ace?
Emily – the whole deck! I’m the joker in the pack!
A day with a great pay off
– this was a hard slog 10k charity run – I really didn’t enjoy it but loved the fact that afterwards we got to spend the whole day in London….and then we found out that our son-in-law Mac (from North Carolina) had his visa granted to live in England!
From this one word prompt either write or Send a picture reply: House rules
Bio: Paul Critchlow lives in Yorkshire, England with his wife Sheron and daughter Emily who has Down syndrome. Paul also has two other children, Laura (25) who is married to Mac and Matt (21) who is married to Kerry. Matt and Kerry have a beautiful 8 month old daughter Milly, making Paul and Sheron grandparents! Paul and Sheron are founding trustees of their local Down syndrome support group. Paul loves sport, especially soccer and cricket, and enjoys walking in the hills and at the coast.
Wasn’t that Fun? I love it! If you want to meet more of the families that played our little What Are The Odds game – check it out here. Feel free to leave a comment, to share, to poke around, and if you are interested in updates from Grown Ups and Downs, not too frequently, join the club here.
Such a beautiful family that I have actually had the privilege to meet. And Paul, you are such a spring chicken! Hayley x
Lucky Hayley! We’ll all get together someday. We’re shooting for World Down Syndrome Congress in 2018!