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Neither of my kids have issues with stairs and for the first five years of my daughters life we lived in a house where all the bedrooms were upstairs. We do now have them both in first floor rooms and it is easier. You will have to watch her at first, as you don't know if she knows how to use stairs and so she will have to practice if she has not. Our daughter had never been down stairs (never been out of the room she lived in really) My son had learned how to go up and down stairs and was good at it. If your child is under three you can get Early intervention. It may be called something else where you live. Talk to your doctor about it. We had PT and OT that came to our house and helped a lot. It's a program through the state that usually serves kids from birth to age three.
I will second the reccomendation for Shriners. We use Scottish Rite in Texas which is similar. We drive two hours to get there and it's worth it. For your other kids one thing that might help is to go to the I-can website and click on the profiles. Let your kids look at the photos. YOu can see some on my blog, but I don't know how much my kids limbs are showing, though there is a video of my daughter dancing. If it lets you look at the blogs I follow, look for one called all my beans or something like that that. It has some video of a little girl who was adopted over a year ago I think. She just got her first tall legs with bending knees and it has video of her walking for the first time. The things to assure your other kids would be:
1. Her differences don't cause her pain.
2. She is just like them.
3. the differences are not contagious.
I usually explain to children that just like Some people have blond hair and some have brown and some have red or black, some people have two hands and some have one, and some have normal legs and some have different ones.
Another thing I thought I would mention. My son who has no legs at all, is almost 9 and still sleeps in a toddler bed because it's easier for him. (though it's a racecar bed with spiderman bedding so it's cool enough for him, LOL) We have stools in the bathrooms and kitchen. Our favorite kind are made by rubbermade and we got them at Wal-mart. They fold and have two steps. The top step is wide enough to sit on and when it's open it's fairly sturdy. We have one that's white plastic and one that is black plastic. My daughter had not been allowed to do much and so was pretty dependant, my son was the total opposite. He could get himself in and out of chairs and dress himself and do everything. You will probably want to be sure you have a good stroller, maybe a cheap one for traveling (if you are going overseas) and good one for when you get home. Possibly a double one if you have another little one) Oh and there is a book! Written by one of the I-can moms. It's called "imagine, Amazing me" It has great pics of kids with limb differences doing kid stuff. It would be great to read to your other kids and maybe later to take to school when your new child starts school.
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