Tammy Gerenser is showing me phone photos of her 18-year-old daughter, Grace. She swipes through a series of images showing a beautiful young woman smiling, participating in school cheerleading, taking a surf lesson, and dressed up for homecoming.
She said when she first welcomed her daughter into the world, she was worried that Grace wouldn’t be able to have such experiences, because she was born with Down syndrome.
“Throughout the pregnancy, there was nothing showing as increased risks or increased markers,” Gerenser recalled. “So when she was born, it was at that time that we found out that she had Down syndrome.”…