A few weeks ago, I ran a series of posts about the possibilities for friendship for kids and adults with disabilities. I've written about Penny's friendships, I shared a post from Ben Conner about friendship among adolescents, and an exchange between two adult women– Tryn Miller, ...

I'm still working to get the eye makeup off after a really nice morning on Friday on the set of 100 Huntley Street, a Canadian Christian television show. I spoke with Moira, the host of the show, about my darkest parenting fears, living in the present moment, our purpose ...

This post started out with a different title: "Things I Love, Hate, and Wish I Loved About Being a Mother." And then I thought, well, I don't allow my kids to use the word hate, so I'll modify that to say "things I really don't like" about being a mother. And then I started ...

I'm heading to Toronto today for a quick trip–first, tonight, to meet in person my online friend Louise Kinross, editor of Bloom: Parenting Kids with Disabilities and then to offer some thoughts on achievement and identity as a Bloom speaker tonight. Tomorrow morning, I'll be ...

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to talk with Tony Rossi about A Good and Perfect Gift. He has posted the interview on his blog, Christopher Closeup. It includes a link to our conversation as well as transcribed excerpts to questions that range from the practical:

"In today's ...

I just realized that I forgot to tell you all that Quin Hillyer reviewed A Good and Perfect Gift in the American Spectator a few weeks ago. I remembered because he blogged about it again last week, in response to George Will's column about his son Jon, who has Down syndrome ...

When Penny was first born, when the doctors shocked us with the news that she appeared to have Down syndrome, the presence of a third copy of her 21st chromosome, I was hit hard with doubts. I doubted my abilities as a mother. I doubted my capacity to love a child who was different ...

This morning, I linked to my post for her.meneutics in which I reviewed Ellen Painter Dollar's No Easy Choice: A Story of Disability, Parenthood and Faith in an Age of Advanced Reproduction. As a follow up to that review, I asked Ellen to reflect upon some of the questions her ...

My friend and fellow Patheos blogger Ellen Painter Dollar has written a book about reproductive technology in the context of faith and contemporary culture. It's called No Easy Choice: A Story of Disability, Parenthood, and Faith in an Age of Advanced Reproduction, and today ...

When the topic of friendship and people with disabilities came up in a discussion several weeks ago, I immediately thought of my friend Tryn, whom I have known since the winter of the Indonesian tsunami. Tryn and I met at the church of a mutual friend. Although I was visiting ...

In my years of growing up with a disability, it has been difficult to make friends because I looked different than normal people. I was always the one who people treated differently. It was very challenging to make friends. Once I got to know people who took the time to get ...

(This post is Part 2. Read Part 1: Can Kids with Disabilities HAVE friends?)

Many academic journals and therapists suggest that since poor social functioning is the primary impediment to social connections for youth with developmental disabilities, then the youth with developmental ...

I had the pleasure of speaking with Lynne Ford of Mid-morning, a radio show in Indianapolis, yesterday about the themes that come up in A Good and Perfect Gift. She asked wonderful questions about our experience with Penny, about language and Down syndrome, about sin and grief ...

I usually visit Matt during his lunch break in a busy school cafeteria where he sits alone at one end of a long table, clusters of students buzzing with interaction and conversation surrounding him. When I see him at one of our ministry's events or at his house he is ...

One of my earliest fears for Penny, and consequently one of my earliest prayers, had to do with her ability to make friends. My fear has softened over the years. There are the buds of friendship she's growing in kindergarten. There is the ongoing friendship with William. And ...