It is Thursday, 6:30 p.m. EST and we have just returned to the hotel from a very long day of advocating for our cause on Capitol Hill. Seems like we have walked 20 miles; but if we get the support we have asked for, it will all be worth it.

We kicked off the day with a breakfast reception for the Down Syndrome Caucus. Some of our lawmakers stopped by, including Congressman Patrick Kennedy of Rhode Island and Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington State. Kennedy and Rogers are both co-chairs of the caucus along with Congressman Pete Sessions of Texas and Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton of Washington D.C. Both Rodgers and Kennedy spoke to us and explained the importance of what we are here to do from a member of Congress' point of view. An interesting side note on three of the 4 co-chairs that will explain why they are so very passionate about Down syndrome. Rodgers has a two year old living with Ds; Sessions has a 6 year old son living with Ds and Norton is the proud mother of a 31 year old living with Down syndrome. As for Kennedy, he has always been an outspoken advocate for people with disabilities and has done some great work to promote positive changes for our families.

As for our personal meetings, we met first with Congressman Gregg Harper of MS. We were asked by the staff from NDSS to go by there to speak with him although he is outside of our region since no one else had scheduled an appointment with him. He has a son with Fragile X and is very supportive of any Bills that would help in any way. Next up was a meeting with Congressman Travis Childers of MS First District. We were extremely impressed by his interest in what we were there for and what we had to say. He mentioned several friends of his who live with Ds and even shared some personal stories about his past experiences with them. He was very knowledgeable of Ds and pledged his support to our cause. This meeting was by far the best meeting we had all day as far as content covered and reception by the congressman.

We then went over to the Senate side and met with staffers from Sen. Thad Cochran's office. They were very receptive of our visit and assured us that they would get with the senator and explain our needs and what we would like for him to do. Cochran is the ranking Republican on Appropriations so he can be a huge help in advancing the two Bills I mentioned in the previous post. To finish our visit to Capitol Hill, we met with the staff in Sen. Roger Wicker's office. They too promised to forward our information on to the senator and assured us that they would be in contact with us in the coming days to let us know the senator's thoughts on the information we dropped off.

Following our last meeting, Michelle and I walked the grounds of the U.S. Capitol and took several pictures. We also got some great shots of the Library of Congress and the US Supreme Court. We are having a great time here and feel like we are making a positive impact on the Ds community, at home and abroad. Tomorrow, we will start our workshops and training seminars before finishing up on Saturday. I will have a post tomorrow on how the workshops go.