You're stressed out. You're overwhelmed. You're running to catch up. You're amazed that there is yet another load of laundry to fold. Or maybe I should be writing this in the first person. Here's the scenario of our past few days: Our babysitter is sick. William threw up (not ...

Marilee (pronounced "merrily") turns one today. As I wrote in our Christmas letter:

Her name fits her well, as she is the happiest baby we've ever known. We often remark that she must sneak out at night and take classes in how to be cute. She claps readily, giggles at her older ...

Cary Umhau, co-creator of a very cool website (and more) called Spacious, has written twice about A Good and Perfect Gift this past week. In her first post, "People with _________ just aren't my thing" she challenges herself, and her readers:

What I had to wrestle with while ...

Yesterday William looked out the window and said, "Mom, why did Jesus decide to make it rain this morning?"

I cocked my head. Not only was I unsure how to answer him, I also wondered where the question came from. "Well, I guess Jesus just thought it was a good day for rain." ...

Over the course of the next few weeks, I'm going to run a series of posts that offer thoughts for cultivating "religious spirituality" in the midst of our busy everyday lives. These thoughts are meant to serve as a companion (or maybe, for those of you who haven't read it, as ...

A few articles/posts/essays I've come across lately that you might enjoy:

My Brother's Valuable Life, by Cal Thomas, a reflection upon the value of his brother with Down syndrome: "No life is a failure when it causes so many to care for others. At that my brother ...

I don't want to share the series of bad parenting moments I experienced this weekend. The times I cursed my children under my breath, the times I yelled, the times my whole body felt fraught with tension and anger and exhaustion. I don't want to share the story of feeling discouraged ...

A few months ago, I wrote a post called, "Why I'm Both Spiritual and Religious." Due to a conversation with a reader in response to that post, I realized that I had a lot more to say on the topic. And so I have written an ebook (30 pages), available for 99 cents on Amazon. It's ...

I have a new article on parents.com: How to Raise a Child with Down Syndrome: Advice and Resources. I hope it offers a positive, brief, and accurate introduction to Down syndrome, particularly for parents with younger children. It begins:

Down syndrome occurs in one of 691 births, ...

Amelia Rivera has made the news this week because her parents wrote a blogpost about doctors denying Amelia a kidney transplant on the basis of Amelia's "mental retardation." After an internet uproar, that decision is under review. Lisa Belkin has written about this story for ...

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream. He expressed that dream in terms of race, but I suspect he could have expressed it on behalf of individuals with disabilities as well. He said,

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning ...

Two friends recently asked me for advice. Both are in their first trimester of pregnancy. Both of their doctors have suggested prenatal screening for Down syndrome between 11 and 13 weeks. Both women are Christians, and both of them would "keep" a baby with Down syndrome. And ...

Some people still think that it is sad that Penny has Down syndrome, and that as her parents we have simply "come to terms" with her diagnosis. I'd say instead that while Down syndrome brings with it plenty of challenges, the fact that our daughter was born with it has also ...

I can't resist passing along a few articles worth reading, spanning topics of faith, family, and disability:

I'm probably just more aware of it than ever before (thanks again, Penny, for opening my eyes to a whole new world), but I feel as though every day I'm reading or hearing ...

On the morning of Penny's birthday last Friday, I picked up my "prayer card" for her. It's a record of my hopes and dreams for her from the past year. It includes a verse from Psalm 1 that I've prayed for her more or less since she was born:

Blessed is the one who does not walk ...