It's not true across the board, but a remarkable number (dare I guess, a majority) of people who have children with Down syndrome seem to believe that their children are indeed special, in the positive sense of that word. Other parents say things like, "Our whole family has become more peaceful since ...

I have the privilege of serving as head of Jill's House, a miraculous ministry to families of children with severe intellectual disabilities.

Jill's House, located just outside of Washington, DC, is an overnight facility that provides long breaks to families who are weary of the burdens of caring for ...

Last month I had the privilege of speaking at the Bloorview Rehabilition Center up in Toronto. I spoke about the relationship between identity and ability. Here's a short clip from the talk:

Is your identity comprised of what you do? Or who you love?

They've done it again. Yes, scientists have accomplished something incredible. And yes, their discovery poses grave ethical concerns that probably won't be addressed sufficiently and as a result people may well get hurt and lives may well be lost. It seems to go this way. To read more, check out three ...

Ross Douthat recently wrote a column about "Eugenics, Past and Future." He writes:

given our society's track record with prenatal testing for Down syndrome, we also have a pretty good idea of what individuals and couples will do with comprehensive information about their unborn child's potential prospects. ...

A Good and Perfect Gift has been selected by Amazon as one of 100 books offered for discount prices on Kindle during the month of June. It's available this month for $2.99–please spread the word! (If you don't have a Kindle or other e-reading device, or if you're like me and still enjoy turning pages ...

William came home from school a few weeks back and he said, "Mom." He said it as a sentence, the way he does when he has something important to tell me. And then again, "Mom. My friend Ashley is not good at listening. And she screams."

William is three. He attends a local public preschool, and he's in ...

Some of you may know that Bristol Palin has recently joined the roster of Patheos bloggers. Some of you may also know that Bristol and I have at least one other thing in common–she has a brother with Down syndrome who is close in age to Penny. So I noticed when she wrote about Down syndrome and abortion ...

I received an email from a reader of this blog a few weeks ago. Lois Uptigrove shared her eulogy for her friend Delane with me, and I asked her to edit it a little bit so you could enjoy this portrait of a life well lived as well.

Delane Ohlhauser was born in 1932 in the farming town of Carbon, Alberta, ...

For any of you who have checked my website lately, you might have noticed it's been a bit static. My web designer is closing shop, so I'm in the process of moving to a new site. Although the current site is still worth your time as far as seeing a slideshow of Penny as a baby (scroll to the bottom of ...

I'm working on a new e-book with Patheos right now. It's tentatively titled "What Every Woman Needs to Know About Prenatal Testing." I'm writing it in an attempt to offer a relatively short and accessible guide to pregnant women who want to know what questions to ask and how to make decisions when it ...

They met in college and fell in love. They talked about getting married, and he started looking for a ring. They dreamed about life together, a life of beauty and joy, raising babies and laughing with friends and growing old.

They did not imagine a car accident. They did not imagine his brain injury. ...

"My Perfect Child," an essay in Christianity Today about coming to understand Penny as a gift and her life as very similar to mine in both its brokenness and its perfection, won First Place in the Evangelical Press Association's Higher Ground Awards for 2011. One paragraph from the essay that sums it ...

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, who has Down syndrome, ...

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 as parents, and the ways ...

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 than I expected. ...

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 book raised for me:

As ...

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 I have a review of the book ...

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 California from Brooklyn, ...

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 to know me, friendship started ...