March 2012

The Wheat and the Weeds

Peter can always tell when I'm excited about something because I try, unsuccessfully, to hide my smile. Perhaps I'm afraid my excitement will come off as self-important or maybe I'm afraid he won't think it matters much. It happened again yesterday. I told him about another ...

Faith, Grief, and Growing Up

Fellow Redbud writer Kelli Trujillo interviewed me for her blog this week, and in one question she asked:

When you first stepped into the journey of having a newborn daughter with Down Syndrome, you write about how you were faced with the reality that your daughter may not ever ...
Can't Resist: Articles Worth Reading

Louise Kinross' take on "after-birth abortion: "I Say Gobbledygook!"

The Brain on Love, a fascinating account from the NY Times Opinionater blog about how love physically changes us. My favorite paragraph:

When two people become a couple, the brain extends its idea of self to ...
What Does It Mean to Listen to God?

Peter has a two week spring break. It involves some grading and commenting and preparing for the upcoming term, but it also involves a chance to rest. We took advantage of the graciousness of many family members and a babysitter and got away, just the two of us, for five nights, ...

A Good and Perfect Gift Wins a Christopher Award!

We were in the San Juan airport on our way to four days of vacation (just Peter and me!) when I received an email that read, "A Good and Perfect Gift wins Christopher Award!" At first I didn't believe it. But I kept reading, and I realized it was real. It was a wonderful way ...

Down Syndrome Goes Global

When our daughter Penny was a baby, I took her into Panera Bread at lunchtime. One of the women who worked there approached me. She said, "I love looking at your baby." Penny has Down syndrome, and I'm never sure what to make of a comment about her appearance. But the woman ...

Princeton, Raleigh/Durham, D.C., and Michigan, Here I Come

I'd love to meet some of you face to face, so I wanted to let you know about the times I'll be speaking in the next month:

Lawrenceville: Tonight, March 21, I will be leading a discussion about being a parent of a child with special needs in an age of exceptionality at the Special ...

World Down Syndrome Day and What I See in Penny

Two hours after our daughter was born, she was diagnosed with Down syndrome. The pronouncement shocked and saddened me, but I also felt confused. I thought all people with Down syndrome looked the same: Flat nose. Thick neck. Epicanthal fold of skin around the eyes. Short stature. ...

Be Still and Know, Spirituality and Religion

There's a verse from Psalm 46 that summarizes the relationship between the practice of religion and the practice of spirituality: "Be still, and know that I am God." It's a prayer, an admonition, an encouragement. The two poles of this verse – be still, know God – together they ...

The Good, the Bad, the Ugly: Responses to Readers about Down syndrome and wrongful birth

I'm sure some of you have skimmed the comments over on the Huffington Post from last week's article about Down syndrome and wrongful birth. But for those of you who haven't, here are some of the best and worst, and one of my responses. (I should add that my response here is ...

Life with Down Syndrome: Good or Wrongful?

Over the course of the past five years, I've read news reports of a series of "wrongful birth" lawsuits in which parents won millions of dollars for the ongoing care of their children. In each case, the parents claimed they would have had an abortion if they had known ahead ...

Perfectly Human: Learning from Corinne by David Di Sabatino

There were no trumpet fanfares to mark the occasion or festoon of flowers dropping from the ceiling. Nobody took a picture so that we could one day look back and fawn over the day. And had you witnessed the event you would have thought nothing of the introduction between us. ...

Lenten Reflections: Lent is a Time for Grief

My husband and I are attending a funeral today. Our dear friend's mother died on Sunday from complications arising from surgery last week. I have no doubt that she is with Jesus, and yet I also wept with sorrow and anger when I learned the news. The faith that she is in God's ...

Dads-in-Chief, or What I Like About Rick Santorum and President Obama

When Sarah Palin first accepted the vice presidential nomination in 2008, I thought I should be excited that a fellow mother of a child with Down syndrome might sit in the White House. But my response to her candidacy was mixed at best. Long before she became a polarizing figure ...

Beginning to Understand Her as a Gift

For those of you who have already read A Good and Perfect Gift, this post will seem quite familiar, as it is adapted from Chapter One. For those of you who haven't, our birth story with Penny was featured last week on designmom.com. And whether you've read it or not, go to amyjuliabecker.com ...

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