Sports are important in our family. Both of our sons were high-school 1. So I shouldn't have been 2 when Lauren announced she was going out for the girls' basketball team. But I was because she has Down syndrome （唐氏综合症）.
My wife and I never told Lauren that she was 3 . We treated her like our other children. We didn't want her to feel disabled.
I discussed Lauren's 4 with my wife that evening. She thought Lauren would make the team and she was right. Lauren did 5 it because not all the girls wanted to play.
The season's first basketball game 6. It kicked off to a good start, but soon Verden, Lauren's team, was behind. Lauren 7 followed the movement on the court and reacted to every 8. Even though Lauren wasn't playing, she looked as if she were having the time of her life. I felt 9 for my daughter.
Just less than two minutes were left, and Verden was down by seventeen points when Lauren was called in for the game. Lauren 10 the others fairly well. Then they passed Lauren the ball. She 11 it. She shot. She scored! A few minutes later, Lauren 12 us in the stands. "Did you see? I scored! I made a 13！"
For sixteen years, I'd tried hard to 14 Lauren from feeling like she was different. But watching Lauren in the game, I saw that she really was different-not physically or emotionally, but 15.
