I first met Diany in 2017 through the National Down Syndrome Society. Diany and I have many things in common and among those things happens to be one extra chromosome in each of our family’s.

Diany and Robbie are the parents of sweet Lili, now 3 (almost 4!). Lili is adorable, funny, spunky and smart. She’s a superstar gymnast and is rocking these first months in school.

When Diany and I first met, we almost immediately went into sharing our stories of receiving our Down syndrome diagnoses and our strong desires to offer support for new parents. A quick offhand comment about starting a nonprofit to do just that switched to a “how do we make this happen for real?”

And here we are now — about one year into the creation of Friendship by LiliZach. Friendship by LiliZach is a Frederick County-based 501(c)3 with the goals of providing support, encouragement and a sense of belonging to parents who have received a diagnosis of Down syndrome.

Our first phase of Friendship by LiliZach has been delivering donated bags filled with gifted items intended to celebrate the baby and families and help the parents feel less alone. The bags are being distributed through Frederick Memorial Hospital and other local hospitals and birthing centers.

The bags include baby items, clothing, resources and educational items and pamphlets.

We have many more dreams and goals up our sleeves — we want to do more with local doctors and medical professionals, especially when it comes to the deliver of diagnoses; we want to work with community businesses to show a desire to include people with Down syndrome in their employment; and to provide more partnerships in the local communities in the future.

Stay tuned for more dreams to come true!