I read a lot about prenatal testing, especially now that a company called Sequenom has developed a test that purportedly can definitively (well, with 99% accuracy) detect Down syndrome via a maternal blood sample as early as 10 weeks. Usually in the "mainstream" media, I read ...

Reed and Aaron showed up at 11:00 last Sunday, just as we were getting home from church. They left around 5:00. Six hours of zooming in on our family life–eating Sunday brunch, reading on the couch, heading outside for a walk. We had no idea if a photo of our family would be ...

So the doctor told us to expect a 5-7 day recovery. But Penny woke up on Saturday morning (after 17 hours of sleep, including the time under anesthesia) with her eyes wide open. "Does anything hurt?" She shook her head.

Two hours later, I listened to her narrate what happened. ...

I woke up this morning because Penny came barreling into our room. "I want to cuddle with you, Mom," she said, glasses perched on her nose, wearing her footed pajamas, a barrette already in her hair to pull back the bangs she's growing out.

I tried to convince her to let me go ...

If you live in New York City, Princeton, Raleigh, Durham, or Basking Ridge, NJ, I'm coming soon to a venue near you. Visit my Events Page for more details. (Though note that right now there isn't up to date info on NYC, and Raleigh's has changed from March 28-30. The woes of ...

We don't celebrate Valentine's Day in our house. We feel rather curmudgeonly about the amount of money spent on the holiday (billions and billions of dollars) and the amount of paper wasted on all those little cards sent to school for Penny's and William's classes. And we try ...

There are weeks when I can't help but write blogposts, and then there are weeks when my brain is too frazzled to put two sentences together. This week is one of the latter. William has had a fever. We have a new babysitter. Peter stayed home sick yesterday too. We're gearing ...

Some of you remember that Penny took ballet when she was 4. You might have read about her recital (Ballet Recitals, Carelessness, and Grace Part One and Part Two). It's a long story, but she's just really started dancing again, and I wrote about this renewed joy for the "My ...

Number one on my list this week, because it combines individuals with disabilities, families, adoption, hope, and some amazing dogs: "Wonder Dog" from the New York Times.

Number two, because it is a beautiful meditation on aging and being young, and because my beloved 91-year ...

Prayer paralyzes me. It's just too much. Too many people in need. Too many world events to consider. Too many personal needs and wants. Too many "oughts" and "shoulds" inside my head. And too many other things, practical things, to get done.

Which is exactly why I need to pray, ...

Penny will have surgery on her eyes and ears next week, on February 17th. She's had a few minor surgeries before–tubes in her ears twice, a heart procedure when she was 14 months old, stints placed in her tear ducts to help them open up. But this will be the first time that ...

As those of you who have read A Good and Perfect Gift know (and, I suspect, as those of you who read this blog regularly also know), I struggle with perfectionism. Having Penny, our six year old daughter with Down syndrome, in our lives, has offered us an opportunity to rethink ...

It's easy to find problems with religion. As I write in "Why I Am Both Spiritual and Religious,"

Religious texts have been used to justify everything from slavery to homophobia to abusive relationships. Religious people in positions of power have abused that power and harmed ...

My friend Sara Hagerty, who writes about her family of four children (three girls and a boy adopted from Ethiopia and Uganda) on the blog Every Bitter Thing is Sweet, has written two posts about their daughter Hope. Yes, these are posts about adoption, but they say as much about ...

That baby on the cover of "Why I'm Both Spiritual and Religious" is, yes, our son. William cried a lot as a baby, and he cried a lot in the night. Sometimes he screamed so hard I wondered if he might hyperventilate. And I remember one night, when I was traveling alone with him, ...