JB: A great question. I would say her development was on target for Down syndrome. Early in her development, there were many challenges of staying on task. Jenny spent much of Amy's early childhood teaching her to read, write and do math. Jenny has a master's in communications, was a college instructor, and she took that skill and applied it to helping Amy early on. Much of the early lessons were about extending time on task. She's been playing piano longer than she's played golf. I think that helps a lot.

FS: Physically and intellectually.

JB: Exactly. She works as hard at piano as she does at golf. That blends well with the golfing aspects, and certainly the attention span and the diligence. With golf, there's a particular need for endurance. We've spent lots of time building up Amy's ability to play 18 holes while walking. The mental focus and the physical endurance is incredible with golf.

FS: It sounds like, although there may have been challenges, whether academically or with attention, socially, you shine, Amy. That's your strength, right?

AB: Yes.

FS: Do you have any advice to other individuals that have Down syndrome?

JB: Do you want me answer that?

AB: Yeah.

JB: We get asked what advice we would have for parents, not necessarily for other individuals. I would say, for us, the learning was from several examples in Amy's journey, where others stepped up and propelled her forward to the next level. I'll give you a couple of small examples. In 8th grade, they formed a club golf team. Amy had been taking lessons for about a year, so she played on the club team. The coach, Dustin Riley, came up to Jenny at the end of the session and said to her "I think Amy can play high school golf." When Amy was in 8th grade, the notion that she could play on a typical girls golf team in a high we would never have imagined. We talked about it, got Matt involved and he talked to the varsity coach at the High School. Amy joined the high school team. The coach was very accommodating. The first year she didn't get to do much. She continued to take lessons and continued to get better. Going into the high school experience, our goal became for Amy to play one varsity golf match before she graduated. We saw that as an enormous accomplishment. In her high school career, she played two varsity matches as a soph omore. She made state as a junior, and she made state again as a senior.

FS: Congratulations, Amy.

AB: Thank you.

JB: It was an example where an outsider saw the potential in her that we didn't see. We were limited by the notion of what a child with a disability can and can't do. He told us not to limit her in what she is capable of. Her golf coach, Matt, when she started lessons with him, fairly quickly came to both of us and said "She is capable of more than you realize." That turned out to be prophetic. The one piece of advice that we would have is don't limit what your child's capable of, because they are capable of more than you realize. You need to step out of your comfort zone sometimes, which is not easy. It certainly was never easy for us. Even today, there are things she does that we're not always comfortable with.

I will tell you one more example where someone saw potential when we didn't. When she was done with high school, we thought that her career was done. We couldn't figure out what the next step was for her. Was she going to try to get a job? Was she going to go to a day program? We didn't even imagine college. Her teacher of record Paul Roads, another one of those superheroes, said in her exit meeting "She's not done. You can't let her stop now. She has more to do. She has more difference to make." He said "Why don't you contact the local community college, see if she can take some classes, and if she could do something with the golf team. See if there are things she can do to keep her journey going. Amy's not done with her voice." That was a paradigm shift for us. We hadn't considered something so bold and aggressive. Jenny contacted the college. I contacted Matt Keel, the golf coach. Jenny talked to them about what Amy could potentially do. I sent a video and a resume to the coach and said "Is there some role Amy can play with the team?" I was thinking maybe she practices with the girls, some sort of quasi-experience of being on a college golf team. He said "I'd like to offer a full scholarship for Amy to play on the team." Once again, something that we never imagined as parents became possible because an outsider said she could go further. Amy ended up playing four years on a golf scholarship at Paradise Valley Community College. She studied dance all four years and got straight A's. She became the first person with Down syndrome to play golf in a national tournament in Florida. We have examples in her journey where outsiders stepped up and gave us the vision of where to go next, and took us outside of our box, into places that we hadn't imagined.

FS: That is so beautiful. I'm so glad you shared that. I hear stories about parents trying to tell people their child can do more, and they're frustrated. It is so refreshing to hear that there were people that saw it even more than the parents.

JB: Yeah. We're very, very thankful for what we call "Amy's village." She has many outside friends and family members who are part of her village and have been key to her journey.

FS: Amy, you're good at piano, dancing, and golf. Anything else?

AB: I am doing theater. I do acting, singing, dancing, and now we will do Grease.

JB: She's playing Rizzo. Last fall she did Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer, and she was Rudolph. She was young Fiona in Shrek.

AB: Yeah, and Madagascar Junior. JB: She's in a theater group of special needs adults that does two shows a year. She loves it, right?

AB: Yes. And also, my boyfriend.

JB: Her boyfriend is in the show.

AB: His name is Ryan. We've been dating five years. That'd be December 1st, our anniversary. He lives in Glendale. He's a theater boy, Newsies.

JB: He was one of the stars of Newsies.

AB: He was cooking at One Step Beyond on Tuesday. He plays hockey. He plays golf.

JB: He's as busy as Amy is, so they cross paths a couple of times a week at One Step Beyond, their day program, and at Imagine Theatre Company.

AB: Yeah.