My name is Dave Hritz. And I'm a commercial general contractor. I
do marketing and sales for a commercial GC here in Denver. My
name is Andrea Hritz and I'm a stay-at-home mom presently and
I'm thinking about going back to work as a nurse. We met at the
Wash Park Grill on a Saturday night just sitting at the bar.
And she was sitting next to me and a little conversation and
next thing you know, we're walking down the aisle. (Dave) I
think we had the same hopes that most married couples have--
spend a couple years being married and then a couple years
later, boom, we'll have a couple kids and raise a family and live
happily ever after. (Andrea) Right. (VOICEOVER) Andrea became
pregnant about six months into their marriage, but she lost the
baby. (Andrea) We didn't know it was gonna be a precursor to many
more events at the time. It was devastating for me. (music)
(VOICEOVER) They had many difficulties, including two more
miscarriages. But with the odds against them, Andrea became
pregnant after in-vitro fertilization. She gave birth to
Chloe Hritz at 31 weeks. Despite some initial challenges, Chloe
grew into a healthy child, and soon Dave and Andrea wanted to
give her a sibling. So they applied for domestic adoption. A
mother from Ft. Collins chose Dave and Andrea to parent her
baby. And Peyton Hritz was born one week later. (Andrea) We were
so happy. We're like, oh we have our two kids, they're healthy,
yay we're done. Let's go to the doctor and get fixed! And we
found out we were pregnant when Peyton was seven months old.
(VOICEOVER) When Andrea was 20 weeks pregnant, she went in for
a routine ultrasound. (Andrea) As a nurse, I could tell
something was up because the sonographer was taking notes
like, pointing to things. And wouldn't answer any of my
questions, wouldn't say anything. And of course Chloe
was there when they said, "We suspect Down syndrome." And that
was hard. I think we all burst into tears. My mom, me, you.
Yeah. Once we knew the baby was gonna survive, we thought, "This
is our miracle baby! This is our first genetic child. Maybe God
let us down, he made a mistake." This wasn't the way it was
supposed to be. (Dave) For her it was gonna be a lot of
struggle and a lot of challenges, for our family. For
Chloe and Peyton. The challenges that they would have. You know,
it had already been a long, hard road. (Andrea) We were tired.
And as time progressed with us knowing she was gonna have
pretty major surgeries we felt guilty, I guess, that we were
bringing her into life and we knew she needed major surgeries
and it wasn't fair to her. Wasn't fair to her sisters.
Probably a little selfish thoughts going on, too. Our
life's gonna change, it's gonna be too hard. But then during the
pregnancy we would tell family and friends, and they would say,
"We're so sorry." Or "What are you gonna do?" We got that posed
to us twice. And we're like, "What do you mean what are we
gonna do?" What do you mean what are we gonna do? We're gonna
have a baby! And nobody celebrated for us. Really. We
can't think of anybody excited for us except the Down Syndrome
Society. They sent u s books, they sent us a cute little
outfit. It touched me so much to get this little girl outfit and
a little blanket. I'm like, "Somebody's happy for us!" And
it was really exciting. (VOICEOVER) Before Andrea gave
birth, she and Dave learned that their daughter had serious
complications with her bowels and heart and would need major
surgery shortly after birth. At about the same time, they
reached out to Dr. Fran Hickey, medical director of the Anna and
John J. Sie Center for Down Syndrome at Children's Hospital
Colorado. Although Sarah was not born at Children's Colorado, she
would see Dr. Hickey after her surgeries. (Dr. Hickey) I tend
to think that early on the medical issues tend to cause a
lot of stress and issues being a parent. Who ever wants to be in
a hospital with their kid? (Dave) It was easy to see how--
I mean, the first time you meet Dr. Hickey--how passionate he is
about it. And you immediately bond with him because he's been
there. And he has a son with Down syndrome. (Dr. Hickey) When
my son was born, when James was born, I kind of decided after I
looked at the literature for about six months and couldn't
find much that I thought, "Well, this is probably a reason why I
do this." I think I was blessed with passion for my family, of
trying to help people." (Andrea) He said, "Dave, it's gonna be
okay." And you knew it was gonna be okay because he had been
there. Sarah Hritz was born on September 3, 2011. (Andrea) You
try to look at her, you're trying to look for the facial
features that you know should be there, but I don't see them. And
I'm like, "She doesn't look like Down syndrome at all." I wanted
her to be normal. And as time went on, obviously the features
came out. But I don't know. I just wanted her to be perfect
and look perfect--what I thought perfect was or what society
does. (VOICEOVER) Sarah underwent bowel surgery two days
after birth and had heart surgery at three weeks old when
she weighed just five pounds. During her three month stay in
the hospital, she experienced an extraordinary number of setbacks
and complications. After exactly 12 weeks in the hospital, Sarah
got to go home. But the challenges had only just begun.
Sarah had a g-tube and would eventually need a sleep mask to
help her breathe. She required complex medical equipment and
non-stop care. (Dave) All the support we've had, Sarah
wouldn't be where she's at if it wasn't for--. (Andrea) You're so
sweet. (Dave) Right here. I mean, she has been her
biggest--every day. It's an every day thing. You just take
it day by day. You get home from work and you get up and you do
it over and over again. It's hard to even remember all of the
challenges that we had. It's taught us patience. We've got to
be more patient with her. We have to be more patient with
ourselves. And she'll get there, it's just gonna take her a
little bit longer. (VOICEOVER) Once Sarah was home from the
hospital, she began working with therapists at the Sie Center. In
light of her medical complexities, all of her care
transferred to Children's Colorado where Dr. Hickey put
together a team of experts in multiple disciplines to help her
get better. At the Sie Center, Sarah began working with Pat
Winders, a physical therapist. (Pat) Down syndrome has many
facets. And sometimes people don't know the physical issues
related to Down syndrome. Just with any child as a pediatric
physical therapist, your goal is, you know, to have them have
a wonderful quality of life and to have a body that supports
that quality of life. But because we've done so much
together, the kids are then free to do what they want to do with
their bodies. But they have a wonderful foundation to do
anything the more they participate, the more people see
what their potential is. (music) (Dave) Just been thinking, it's
finally, we're finally getting to a point to where we can see
the light at the end of the tunnel. I'll look at her and
say, "Do you realize what you have been through?" I mean,
it's-- and she'll look at me back like, "No, I haven't
realized what I've been through." But she has been
through so much. (Dr. Hickey) But you always knew when you
looked in her eyes, she had a special way about her. I don't
know how to put it, but when you're with her, you felt
special. You know what I mean? (Pat) Then when her medical
issues were much more under control, I mean, just this
feisty little personality. Just came out. (Dr. Hickey) Sarah is an incredibly
beautiful little girl and has so much charisma and she's just a
blessing to be around. And how isn't that more important than a
lot of the other things that we think are important? You know?
(Pat) I just feel like it's a life-long journey and nothing is
ever predictable. (Andrea) I feel like the medical is pretty
much behind us now, so I just feel like now is just figuring
out how to best get her prepared for hopefully an independent
life. (Pat) What I've seen in my experience is that children with
Down syndrome have really done whatever they want to do. (Dr.
Hickey) I really try to look, when I talk to parents, is look
to the future. Our future is totally unbridled. It's not a
kid with a disability, it's just a kid. And I think that's the
thing. To be honest with you, you ought to be enjoying that
kid. That's what I tell parents. Like, the other kids aren't
gonna be that enjoyable, especially when they're like,
15. They're gonna drive you nuts. So where you should enjoy
them because that's what life is about. (Andrea) I just hope for
her to have a full life. I expect her to live on her own, I
don't know. And if she doesn't she'll live with us, and it'll
be fun. We'll go travel the world with her. I pray for her
husband, I think maybe she'll get married. Maybe she will go
to college. I have heard of some kids with Down syndrome going to
college. And she's smart. I guess it seems weird to say
that, but I feel like she's very smart. And the things that she's
been able to do, the things that she's been able to make
connections to. I feel like maybe she's trapped a little bit
in this body that is hard to cooperate with her. But we have
great expectations for her. She's our baby. (Dave) She's a
blessing. (Andrea) Yeah. She's precious. I always call her,
she's the sweetest baby in the world. She's so sweet.
I don't see--our family just wouldn't be the same without her.
She's wonderful. It's been worth it.
(music)