March 2014
It had been more than a year since we last buried a child. And though we all knew it would eventually happen again, it felt like an especially hard blow. When the time came, Special Hope Network had existed in Lusaka, Zambia, for close to four years and we had been serving ...
Peter and I took Penny and William, our two older kids, to see Frozen in the theater in January. I was nearly as excited as the children. I had read the endless praise, including the writer who called it the best Disney movie since The Lion King (which I saw four times in ...
In case you haven't noticed, every week on Friday I offer a list of blogposts and articles you might enjoy over the weekend on the topics I try to cover on this blog--faith, family, disability, and culture.
Faith:
Andrea Palpant Dilley shares her personal faith experience ...
I had a roommate in college who went out (to a party, that is) four nights a week. If she returned to our room at all, it was usually long after I had gone to bed. Much as I enjoyed her company, I saw us as very different. I was organized and well-behaved. She was wild and ...
A few years back, I read a beautiful and heart-wrenching article in the Boston Globe about a family who had adopted a child from Uganda named Ruth. I reached out to the author, Meadow Rue Merrill, and an online friendship budded in time. Since then, I've had the privilege ...
I left our pediatrician's office feeling somewhat self-satisfied. The doctor had asked for a report on my three-year old daughter Marilee's use of iPads, iPhones, and television. She came in under the American Academy of Pediatrics recommendations for hours of screen ...
The big news of the week in my world is World Down Syndrome Day, celebrated today because the technical name for Down syndrome is Trisomy 21. Trisomy means three-chromosomes. People with Down syndrome have three copies of chromosome 21 instead of the typical pair. Thus, 3-21. ...
Every week, I read heartwarming stories about Down syndrome: homecoming kings and queens, young men and women going to college, starting businesses, becoming models and actors, running marathons. And every week, I read horror stories about Down syndrome: rape that only becomes ...
People sometimes ask me what I've "done right" with Penny. They ask because Penny reads and goes to ballet class and practices piano and orders her own meal when we eat at a restaurant. They ask because she is "high functioning." I suspect many people ...
It's a bright Sunday afternoon at the park. My youngest daughter Evangeline giggles in an adaptive swing while her dad dutifully pushes her back and forth. We adopted Evangeline, who has Down syndrome and autism, from Ukraine. Elaina and Zoya, our two older girls, with ...
When Penny was diagnosed with Down syndrome at birth, I was sad and scared. The sadness and the sorrow dissipated with time, replaced by joy and hope. One of the reasons I began to have joy and hope for this baby I loved was because I began to believe that she wasn't ...
If you only have time to check out two articles this week, I highly recommend the first two--both related to disability. One is the hard and sad story of men with intelletual disabilities who were virtually enslaved by a turkey processing company. The other is a delightful ...
A few years back, I was talking with a Christian friend about what spiritual principles we should invoke when we think about spending money. "I just wish there was a formula," she said. "I wish I had some dos and don'ts every time I walked into Target." ...
I am packing to go on a short vacation with my husband. I have been thinking about this time away all winter—three nights for just the two of us in Florida when I join him on the end of a business trip. Three days of sunshine. Three days of walks on the beach and calling ...
Peeking out from my living room window, I see one of my sons chucking a snowball at a neighbor who has Down Syndrome.
This could be disconcerting for some moms, I know, but not this one.
It's February in North Carolina and, after a rare snowfall, the friendliest snowball ...
April 2014
