At 47, Brenda DeWees is one of a growing number of aging developmentally disabled Americans who are being taken care of by their parents or other family members.

Exact numbers are difficult to come by, but there are several thousand families in the United States in a similar position. And Brenda's mother, Mary, says she wouldn't have it any other way.

The highlight of their day is when Brenda comes home from her work at Options of Linn County. They will sit around the family room at the rear of their brick, ranch-style house in Ceder Rapids and take in the day. Maybe watch some songbirds flit between the feeders.

In the early 1960s, the life expectancy for someone with Brenda DeWees' conditions was in the 20s or even late teens because of the physical problems that accompany developmental diseases. That number has gone up, do to better technology and the way we treat those diseases. Life expectancy has gone up so dramatically, that some children with cerebral palsy may end up outliving their parents.

How do the parents prepare fore that eventuality?

"That's when faith comes in. You take it day by day," Mary Dewees says. "We saw it through."