Our whole family is so grateful for the Jill’s House community. A few years ago, our son, Noah, started at the Windy City Camp through the Weekend Adventures program, and this past summer, our daughter, Ellen, interned at the main Jill’s House location in Virginia. 

I first heard about Jill’s House when it came across my Facebook feed through one of the Down Syndrome Facebook groups I am a part of. I saw that Jill’s House had a Chicago camp, located only a few hours away from us. At that point, we just didn’t have a lot of  people in our life who could provide anything more than a few hours of help here and there, so we were eager for more respite and willing to drive those few hours for what camp had to offer.

We didn’t know before Noah was born that he had Down Syndrome. Through that difficult time, I prayed that God would do something in our other children.

The Lord kept that prayer especially in our daughter, Ellen. She is one of Noah’s absolute favorite people in
the whole world! She has a knack of drawing things out of Noah and encourages him to share in ways he would not with anyone else. She has never seen him as a burden, but instead has always been so patient and gracious with him. The Lord has so clearly wired Ellen to work with the special needs population, and used the role her brother Noah has in her life to teach her so!

Having a 16-year-old brother with Down Syndrome, she has a pretty big set of tools. She was 3-years-old when he was born, and that created not only a comfortability as she interacts with people with special needs, but an actual draw to people with special needs. When we learned about the Jill’s House summer internship in Virginia, it seemed just perfect for Ellen! I was thrilled about how interested she was in it. It was a joy to tour the Virginia location, as our Jill’s House experience is mostly through the Chicago Weekend Adventures program.

As for Noah, he has a funny sense of humor—he loves telling jokes. He has some zingers now…he keeps us laughing! We saw very early on that he would be wonderful in a greeting role at church because of how personable he is. He is very extroverted and has a tendency to reach to hug and welcome people around him. He loves basketball and loves listening to music. With Ellen, he is quick to sing and dance. Noah loves all the different activities at camp, like the big swing and archery!

Windy City has a professional photographer come and take pictures of the kiddos. My favorites are the photoshoot in which Noah dressed up as Mr. Incredible and the year he posed with Santa Claus!

Noah’s favorite way to be celebrated is to have everyone all together. Some years ago, after our oldest had first been away for college, when the other five of us first visited, Noah pointed at each member of the family and exclaimed: “Hey everybody! Look: one, two, three, four, five, six!” His best time is when he has everyone together.

Thank YOU for coming together to build Jill’s House for kids just like Noah and to train young adults like Ellen. This organization has played such a huge part in my family’s life and because of that it is from the bottom of my heart that I say, “THANK YOU!”