Disability
Stories, theology, and cultural commentary related to disability.
![Stopping to Notice a Day of Grace Stopping to Notice a Day of Grace](https://www-images.christianitytoday.com/images/39909.jpg?h=123&w=220)
Do you ever have a day that captures the simple goodness within your life? For me, it doesn't happen often. I have lots of grumpy days--when the kids are whining and I'm tired and there's a voice in the back of my head telling me to pay more attention to the good things but instead I ...
![Can Pro-Life Christians Be Genetic Counselors? Can Pro-Life Christians Be Genetic Counselors?](https://www-images.christianitytoday.com/images/39546.jpg?h=123&w=220)
Virginia's Democratic Governor Terry McAuliffe recently signed two bills into law that provide rules for licensing genetic counselors. Genetic counseling has been recognized as a field since the late 1970s, but many states still fail to regulate it. With advances in technology and an increase ...
![What Slowing Down Teaches You That Rushing Never Will What Slowing Down Teaches You That Rushing Never Will](https://www-images.christianitytoday.com/images/39530.jpg?h=123&w=220)
My daughter Eden is slow. I know that sounds negative. It feels almost like a betrayal to write it. Our world rarely welcomes slowness. But Eden, who is nine years old and has Down syndrome, remains unaware of the need to rush. Ever.
This morning she walked out of the house with mismatched mittens, ...
![A Doctor Faces His Own Suffering A Doctor Faces His Own Suffering](https://www-images.christianitytoday.com/images/39332.jpg?h=123&w=220)
So much pain. I was at what should have been the prime of life. Med school finished, internship and residency done. Two kids and a wonderful wife at home. But there was so much pain.
I was a rheumatologist practicing in Roanoke, Virginia when I began to have discomfort in my feet. I instituted ...
![Perfectly Human: What Is Ministry Success When a Child Dies? Perfectly Human: What Is Ministry Success When a Child Dies?](https://www-images.christianitytoday.com/images/39140.jpeg?h=123&w=220)
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 children with intellectual ...
![Perfectly Human: How a Little Girl with Cerebral Palsy Shared Her Gifts Perfectly Human: How a Little Girl with Cerebral Palsy Shared Her Gifts](https://www-images.christianitytoday.com/images/39015.jpg?h=123&w=220)
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 of reading Meadow's ...
![What We Celebrate on World Down Syndrome Day What We Celebrate on World Down Syndrome Day](https://www-images.christianitytoday.com/images/38946.jpg?h=123&w=220)
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 more horrific when ...
![The Best Parenting Advice I Ever Received The Best Parenting Advice I Ever Received](https://www-images.christianitytoday.com/images/38926.jpg?h=123&w=220)
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 assume we've coached ...
![Perfectly Human: Reflections on Seven Years with my Daughter with Down syndrome Perfectly Human: Reflections on Seven Years with my Daughter with Down syndrome](https://www-images.christianitytoday.com/images/38870.jpg?h=123&w=220)
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 adult-like bodies but childlike ...
![Anticipating World Down Syndrome Day: What I Admire About My Daughter Anticipating World Down Syndrome Day: What I Admire About My Daughter](https://www-images.christianitytoday.com/images/38867.jpg?h=123&w=220)
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 defined by the list of delays ...
![Sinless Down Syndrome Angels? Or Something Else? Sinless Down Syndrome Angels? Or Something Else?](https://www-images.christianitytoday.com/images/38775.jpg?h=123&w=220)
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 fight you could ever ...
![Perfectly Human: Reflections on Disability and the Good Life Perfectly Human: Reflections on Disability and the Good Life](https://www-images.christianitytoday.com/images/37525.jpg?h=123&w=220)
Soon after our daughter Penny was born and diagnosed with Down syndrome, I started to ask questions about the spiritual implications of her disability. To give a glimpse of some of the questions I was asking, here's an excerpt from our time in the hospital, as related in my memoir A Good and ...
![What My Daughter Wants You To Know About Prenatal Testing What My Daughter Wants You To Know About Prenatal Testing](https://www-images.christianitytoday.com/images/37526.jpg?h=123&w=220)
At 5:00, my oldest daughter Penny finds me in bed. Cough drop wrappers, a used tea bag, and Dayquil packets surround me. "Come on up, sweetie," I say, and she climbs in next to me.
She has brought her spelling book. Her second grade assignment this week involves ten plural words. As she ...
![Introducing Thin Places Introducing Thin Places](https://www-images.christianitytoday.com/images/37328.jpg?h=123&w=220)
In addition to the video chat about this blog with Katelyn Beaty yesterday (and for those of you who might be like me and prefer reading words to watching conversations), I thought I'd offer a few thoughts on what to expect from this blog going forward.
The title of this blog, "Thin Places," ...
![Welcome Amy Julia Becker, CT's Newest Blogger Welcome Amy Julia Becker, CT's Newest Blogger](https://www-images.christianitytoday.com/images/37299.jpg?h=123&w=220)
In early 2010, Amy Julia Becker was a wife and mother of two, an MDiv student at Princeton Theological Seminary, and the author of an unpublished book about raising a child with Down syndrome. The book had been rejected by 48 publishers. "I put the project away, focused on finishing my last ...
![My Questions About the Ethics of Embryo Selection My Questions About the Ethics of Embryo Selection](https://www-images.christianitytoday.com/images/37305.jpg?h=123&w=220)
It sounds pretty basic. A lovely young couple wants children, and they want those children to prosper and grow. They want to do as much as they reasonably can to ensure that those children have good, full lives. Happy lives. Lives that are as free from suffering and pain as possible. The problem ...