{"id":1987,"date":"2025-07-17T04:33:25","date_gmt":"2025-07-16T18:33:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.downsyndrome.org.au\/voice\/?p=1987"},"modified":"2025-07-17T04:33:26","modified_gmt":"2025-07-16T18:33:26","slug":"finding-my-forever-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.downsyndrome.org.au\/voice\/2025\/07\/17\/finding-my-forever-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding my forever home"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Finding my forever home<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n
\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n
To read the full digital issue of Voice, download a copy here.<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
Download Voice \u2013 Housing and Living 2025<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Anna Gray shares what she loves and what she has learned about living independently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI love my independence and freedom and that means I get to make my own decisions.”<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Tell us about your home<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

My house is awesome. I live in a unit which is near the park, supermarket and gym. The train station is close too, plus there is a bus which I can catch to a big shopping centre where I love to get sushi and coffee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is also close to my work at the hospital. I have a backyard where I do yoga and my dog can run around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

How long have you lived there?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I have lived in my unit for almost a year and a half.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

What is it like?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It has two bedrooms and a big living room. I like the kitchen because I love cooking and I love making smoothies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The laundry has a dog door. Before I moved in we gave the unit a bit of a makeover and I have lots of pictures and pink is the theme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Do you live with anyone?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I live with a flatmate rather than a support worker. She is 24 and is pretty quiet. My last flatmate Lily was really fun and we would go out for ice-cream sometimes and have dinner together. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the last 18 months I have learnt a lot about being thoughtful of the person I am sharing with. I also live with my two-year-old dog Miley. She is a very cute Cavoodle and she keeps me company and I take her for walks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s your favourite thing to do at home?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I love listening to my music whilst I am cooking meals that I choose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

How did you make the decision to live independently?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I did a few practices of 1-2 weeks at a time renting Airbnbs in different neighbourhoods with my support worker Marie (the NDIS funded this). I practised skills that I needed to be able to live in my own place. I really liked the feeling of freedom and independence so knew I was ready.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Was it hard at the start?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Yes it was because I realised I had to do everything! I have support workers helping me with shopping, some cooking, washing, learning about safety in my home and cleaning. I am getting used to all this now but it was a lot to start. I missed my family being around, so we have solved this by having family dinners once a week (sometimes at my house), and I stay at my parent\u2019s house on a Sunday night. I sleep in my old bedroom and it is really nice to hang with the family. Mum and Dad and my brother and sister drop into my place too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

What are the good things about living independently?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I love my independence and freedom and that means I get to make my own decisions. I get to choose what I want to do in my spare time and what I am going to cook. If I want to go to the park I can, if I want to go to my local coffee shop I can. I love having my friends over too and getting takeaway food sometimes. I have got to know the ladies at the park who bring their dogs too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

What are some of the challenges?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A big one is there is no one to clean up after me and I have to do this myself, but otherwise I am doing very well. Sometimes I get a little bit lonely, but I have my dog and I am a pretty busy person. Sometimes time management is hard and knowing that I need to go to bed. My alarm on my phone helps this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

How do you manage paying bills?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

My mum helps sort these, but I have to stick to a budget so there is money left over to pay for these bills. Mum keeps reminding me to turn off my lights and fan because electricity is expensive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

What advice do you have for other people with Down syndrome who might be thinking about living independently?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Really work on your life skills and personal hygiene and start practicing cooking and learning about healthy eating when you are a teenager and making good choices. Have opportunities to stretch your boundaries in a safe way. Having short practices of living independently gave me confidence and the experience of what it would be like. I also learnt about which areas of life skills I needed to work on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

What have you learned about yourself from living independently?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I have learnt that I can make some of my own appointments, like pilates. I am really proud of myself that I can do all of these things and look after my dog too. It has been great for my confidence and I am so happy that I have my forever home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n
<\/span>
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n
\n

Download the full digital edition of Voice here.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n
Download Voice – Housing and Living 2025<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anna shares what she loves about living independently.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1992,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"648,856,868,986,1382,1483","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.downsyndrome.org.au\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.downsyndrome.org.au\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.downsyndrome.org.au\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.downsyndrome.org.au\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.downsyndrome.org.au\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1987"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.downsyndrome.org.au\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1987\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1993,"href":"https:\/\/www.downsyndrome.org.au\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1987\/revisions\/1993"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.downsyndrome.org.au\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.downsyndrome.org.au\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.downsyndrome.org.au\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.downsyndrome.org.au\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}