There\u2019s no lack of intensity in the Banahan family. When asked what had prepared her daughter, Julia, for post-secondary education, Paula Banahan replied without hesitation, \u201cNothing—except for determination.\u201d She then clarified that Julia\u2019s social experience in high school was very positive saying, \u201cShe had all kinds of friends and they helped her incredibly. She was the \u2018belle of the ball\u2019.\u201d But Paula went on to describe her daughter\u2019s academic experience as \u201ca total drudge uphill.\u201d When I met with the psychologist in Julia\u2019s junior year, he looked at me and said, \u2018Mrs. Banahan, your daughter has Down syndrome and you need to understand she has reached her limit and she\u2019s probably not going to college.\u2019 At that point I stopped the meeting, saying I would be happy to reconvene when everyone agreed that the sole purpose of the meeting would be to strategize how to get Julia into community college.\u201d Julia\u2019s twin brother, Bobby, once said Julia was the single most important influence in his life by proving time and time again that she can do things everyone thought to be impossible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A few years later, there was a very different school meeting. Julia\u2019s first attempt to pass the Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) program at Brookline College was not successful. Julia, Paula, and an administrator sat discussing the possibility of allowing Julia to repeat the CNA course a second and possibly a third time if necessary. It was Julia who stopped that meeting, declaring, \u201cI am not doing this a third time. I will pass the second time.\u201d And she did. Out of 13 students, Julia was one of five who successfully went on to the complete the clinical portion of the program. Through hard work, good coaching from Paula (herself an RN) and appropriate accommodations, Julia was able to complete her clinicals and become a Certified Nursing Assistant. Julia still faces some challenges in the process of obtaining her license, but with Paula\u2019s help, Julia is working through it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For now, Julia maintains her interest in the medical field by volunteering at Phoenix Children\u2019s Hospital in the Down Syndrome Clinic run by Developmental Pediatrician Dr. Robin Blitz. When she talks about her duties at the hospital, Julia brightens, \u201cI like being around kids. Sometimes I read to them, and some of them have what I have: Down syndrome.\u201d She does acknowledge the job is not without some challenges, \u201cIt\u2019s hard for me to see kids hurt. Sometimes I care too much.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When Julia was approaching 18, her parents considered the legal options available and concluded that guardianship was not the right choice. Paula and Jim recall thinking, \u201cFor us to go into a court of law and say that Julia is incompetent to decide if she wants to get married or have kids, we can\u2019t say that. We won\u2019t take that away from her but we will help her. And she\u2019s fine with us having power of attorney. We felt it would be more difficult to reverse guardianship.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Julia recently started her first job as a hostess at Aunt Chilada\u2019s restaurant in North Phoenix and she\u2019s looking forward to voting in her second presidential election. Although she says it is too soon for her to decide who she\u2019ll be voting for, she\u2019ll be doing her research, \u201cI want to see how they stand on the issues I\u2019m for. I find out by reading newspapers, watching television and having discussions with family about issues.\u201d And what are Julia\u2019s hopes for her volunteer position at Phoenix Children\u2019s Hospital? She offers, \u201cIt might turn out to be a paying job.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If Julia\u2019s determination to succeed is any guide, it seems very possible that it will.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cFor us to go into a court of law and say that Julia is incompetent to decide if she wants to get married or have kids, we can\u2019t say that. We won\u2019t take that away from her but we will help her.\u00bb<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2797,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[125,59,126],"class_list":["post-2118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-family-stories","tag-adulthood","tag-guardianship","tag-legal-options"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/raisingspecialkids.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Banahan-family.png",1920,1080,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/raisingspecialkids.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Banahan-family-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/raisingspecialkids.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Banahan-family-300x169.png",300,169,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/raisingspecialkids.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Banahan-family-768x512.png",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/raisingspecialkids.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Banahan-family-1024x576.png",1024,576,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/raisingspecialkids.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Banahan-family-1536x864.png",1536,864,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/raisingspecialkids.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Banahan-family.png",1920,1080,false],"post-grid-thumbnail":["https:\/\/raisingspecialkids.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Banahan-family-300x200.png",300,200,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Neil Wintle","author_link":"https:\/\/raisingspecialkids.net\/es\/author\/neilw\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"\u201cFor us to go into a court of law and say that Julia is incompetent to decide if she wants to get married or have kids, we can\u2019t say that. We won\u2019t take that away from her but we will help her.\"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/raisingspecialkids.net\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/raisingspecialkids.net\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/raisingspecialkids.net\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/raisingspecialkids.net\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/raisingspecialkids.net\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2118"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/raisingspecialkids.net\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2118\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2800,"href":"https:\/\/raisingspecialkids.net\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2118\/revisions\/2800"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/raisingspecialkids.net\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/raisingspecialkids.net\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/raisingspecialkids.net\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/raisingspecialkids.net\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}