Alan’s journey as dad - 9 years in with downsyndrome.

Alan Lawrence from ‘That dad blog’ joins me on the show this week. He’s dad of 6, going on 7 later this year with them adopting another child from Columbia. He loves being dad and loves big families like his wife, Nikki. Nine years ago Wil was welcomed into the world and Alan shares how he did struggle with acceptance of Wil’s downsyndrome diagnosis, and like many dads did envisage things differently. His wife Nikki, his family and his faith played huge roles in where he stands today. He describes how he feels when he sees another dad ‘in the wild’ with a kid who has downsyndrome and explains it’s like seeing an old high school friend you haven’t seen for years. Alan and I dive into how to be the best dads we can be, which involves being open with our kids and showing our vulnerability, however that looks to us. His eldest son recently thanked him for being real and open which brought tears to Alan, and got me caught up in the retelling of it. He refers to his rock as his wife and his family throughout the talk, he says that he is a different dad to who he was before Wil arrived using meditation most mornings being a morning guy, to ground himself in an ever expanding family. This is a lovely and beautiful talk with Alan, and is extremely passionate about sharing the journey of his big family and having Wil. You can follow him his funny videos and his journey as dad here…. On Instagram https://instagram.com/thatdadblog?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@thatdadblog?lang=en&is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=mobile&sender_web_id=7249351202848015890 YouTube https://youtube.com/@dadblogger And his main page is https://linktr.ee/thatdadblog?fbclid=PAAaaEZesDUaldyNHVFCbhsfK7P0bL5__ZK6uvPDs0ELzy19j7aA2aykSN8Eo_aem_Ae-sHgECTZdYiLTBB24fcJudQEEZgPHFSHQm2HFu_NcTtcHGc1JxHlOFAGmUpLR8bs0.