February is Turner Syndrome Awareness month. Turner Syndrome is a genetic disorder affecting girls where all or part of an X chromosome is missing in all or some of her cells. This causes short stature (average height is 4'8") and ovarian failure. There are many other effects which vary in each girl/woman including orthopedic anomalies, chronic ear infections, hearing loss, heart defects, kidney abnormalities, learning disabilities and a higher risk for heart disease, hypothyroidism, celiac disease, diabetes, and osteoporosis. Some girls are more affected than others. Estimates are that only 1% of girls conceived with Turner Syndrome survive the pregnancy long enough to be born which makes them little miracles. I know this because my husband and I have been blessed with a daughter with it. Let's just say that I have become much more intimately acquainted with our local med school's health system than I ever planned to be! I am grateful to be three miles from excellent, cutting edge care. The average age of diagnosis is nine, but within hours of Katherine's birth the doctors told me they had some concerns and wanted to run some tests and bring in a geneticist to see her. With a diagnosis at birth, her doctors knew what conditions to monitor her for as she grew. The Turner Syndrome Foundation has adopted the butterfly as it's symbol which, along with cats and baseball, just happens to be one of Katherine's favorite things.
This card is part of the It's a Girl Thing Blog Hop and Challenge to raise awareness of Turner Syndrome and The Paper Players Challenge to use a feline, the purrfect reason to inaugurate my newest cat stamp. Katherine comes by her love of cats honestly as I have loved them for as long as I can remember. I started with white cardstock and used Tattered Rose and Speckled Egg Distress inks with the Always and Forever stencil from Echo Park Paper Company to lightly create a hint of a backdrop to ground Mooch by Lavinia, a butterfly from Hampton Art, and a sentiment from Fancy Greetings stamp set by Altenew. I stamped them in Versafine Onyx Black using a stamp positioning tool, so I could double stamp for deeply black, solid images. I then ran the ink pad along the edge and attached the card front to a pink card base.
I am also entering this in the Show Us Your Pussy Cats February challenge. Thank you for stopping by! If you check out the It's a Girl Thing Challenge there are links for more information about Turner's Syndrome. Until next time, Hansi
