Child with Down syndrome brings blessings to family and friends

FARGO, N.D. - When there's a Minnesota Vikings football game on TV, there's no interrupting 8-year-old Colten Schneider while he is watching it.

"He hoots, hollers, claps and 'whoo-whoos' through the entire game," said his mother, Marcia. "He'll reiterate the plays in a game to me through words, gestures and actions. He gets so excited, he's just talking 100 miles an hour." Colten has Down syndrome and struggles to express himself verbally, but his family and his many friends almost always know exactly what he means. They also know what he has brought to their lives. "We're lucky to have him. He's taught us way more than we've ever taught him," Marcia Schneider told The New Earth, the official publication of the Diocese of Fargo. "He brings out the real compassionate side in everyone." Colten's siblings - Sierra, a high school senior; Cody, a freshman; Sheyenne, a seventh-grader; and Santana, a third-grader - are thankful for their brother. "Every night when you come home, he gives you a hug," said Sierra Schneider, who will attend Minot State College in the fall. "I won't have that next year." Colten loves to be active. He participated in peewee wrestling last year and will again this year. He has passed the second level in his swimming lessons and attends religious education classes at the family's church, St. Anthony in Selz. He loves to go hunting and fishing with his father, Wayne, and the rest of the family, and rides on a snowmobile, a go-cart and his bike. He idolizes his pets. Now a first-grader, Colten is learning to read and a couple of months ago read in front of the class for the first time. When Colten was born, Marcia Schneider, a Special Olympics coach for 21 years, thought he looked like one of her athletes with Down syndrome. She has worked with special-needs children since she was in college. But the physical characteristics of Down syndrome were not pronounced in Colten, and a blood test was needed. A blood sample was sent to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and the results confirmed it. The birth announcements for Colten "explained that we had found out he had Down syndrome and that we were very proud of him," Marcia Schneider said. "I think it made everyone feel more at ease with us when they saw us, which really helped us in the acceptance process," she added. Marcia Schneider said it can be depressing to know that Colten's abilities are limited by Down syndrome, but their spirits are always lifted by knowing "he's the best thing that ever happened to us." Colten's disability has "strengthened us, and our faith is probably the root of that," she said. "He really puts what is important in life into perspective.

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Copyright (c) 2007 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops