Last spring, I had the privilege of sharing some thoughts at the Q Annual Conference in Washington, D.C. I gave a talk about Penny, perfection, and prenatal testing. It's only 9 minutes long, but it summarizes things that I've spoken and written about before, but if you're interested, head over to For ...

What comes to mind when you hear the word "retarded"?

I'm going to guess that it strikes many readers of this blog as rude, if not offensive, because so many people within our culture use the word as a joke or a slur. It originated as a medical diagnosis for people with low IQ's ("mental retardation"), ...

A friend of mine once mentioned the three stages of memoir writing. There's living it, writing it, and then reflecting with other people about it. A Good and Perfect Gift was published a little over a year ago, which probably means it's time to move on. But before I completely turn that corner, I thought ...

A friend passed along an amazing article about the search and rescue of Robert Wood Jr., a young boy with autism, who was lost in a Virginia park for five days last October: Catch Me If You Can. It's an amazing story, but what struck me most of all was that the man who finally found Robert had ...

As many readers of this blog already know, the biotech company Sequenom has developed a new prenatal test designed to identify Down syndrome as early as 8 weeks into a woman's pregnancy. The test is noninvasive and carries no risk for mother or child. George Estreich, author of The Shape of the Eye, ...

My husband and I found out that our daughter Penny had Down syndrome two hours after she was born, and we shared the same instinct. We wanted to run away. Within minutes, I had the route planned out from the hospital room to my grandparents' summer cottage, three hours north, at the end of a secluded ...

We moved yesterday, so I don't have much time to write, but I wanted to urge you all to pray.  A young girl who is reported to have Down syndrome has been arrested in Pakistan for allegedly burning pages of the Koran. Here is the email I received from the National Down Syndrome Society:

Down Syndrome ...

For every pregnant woman, a baby remains a hypothetical being for a long time. Even once that baby is born, parents don't know whether she will love music, whether that straight hair will all fall out or turn curly or change color, whether he will fight with his siblings, whether her life will be marked ...

I was headed to a wedding out of town last week, so I asked my online friend Stephanie Meredith to offer a guest post about resources for women with a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome. Stephanie is the author of the booklet created by Lettercase.org, which was prepared with assistance from representatives ...

As many of you know, I've been working on an ebook about prenatal testing for a few months now. It's in the final stages, and one of the things I want to include in the book is resources for women and their families when faced with a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome. I asked Stephanie Meredith, Author ...

I play a game with my kids. When they are pouting or withdrawing from me or disappointed with me or think I'm disappointed with them, I hold up my thumb and index finger and say, "Do I love you this much?"

They know the answer by now, but the first time, they looked at me, a little confused. I smiled ...

I was asked to come up with my "Top Five Books About Special Needs" for the July/August issue of Christianity Today. In all honesty, they aren't necessarily my top five. I get paralyzed, first of all, at the prospect of naming a favorite anything, especially when it comes to books, because I am so effusive ...

I'm headed to Chicago tomorrow to speak at the Bethesda Institute's Summer Institute on Theology and Disability. They asked me to write a blogpost to introduce some of the thoughts I'll be sharing on Wednesday. I wrote:

When our daughter Penny was diagnosed with Down syndrome shortly after birth, I discovered ...

Really beautiful and profound reflection on what it means to be the body of Christ through reflection upon the art of Tim Lowly, whose daughter Temma has severe disabilities: The Broken Made Whole by Mark Sprinkle. He writes:

There is a sense in which we look at Temma and we want to affirm that she is ...

What does "preventive" mean?

Mark Leach (whose guest post this morning, "Supreme Court Unexpectedly Upholds Regulatory Elimination of Down Syndrome," created quite a stir) and many others take it to mean that the government is advocating the prevention of the birth of children with Down syndrome. "Preventive," ...

I asked Mark Leach, a lawyer whose daughter has Down syndrome, to offer a reflection on how the Supreme Court's recent ruling regarding the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act would impact the lives of individuals:

A common reaction to the recent Supreme Court decision upholding the Patient Protection ...

I had the pleasure of meeting Ginnie Breen, co-author of I am In Here: The Journey of a Child with Autism who Cannot Speak but Finds her Voice a few months ago, and more recently the privilege of interviewing her about her experience as the mother of Elizabeth, her 14-year old daughter who has autism. ...

In honor of summer, the Patheos Family Channel is giving away copies of books by its authors. Click here to leave a comment and be entered into a drawing to win a copy of A Good and Perfect Gift, and click here to see the full list of titles being given away.

I would recommend:

What Happened to Sophie ...

As Bonnie Rochman reported for Healthland on Time.com last week:

Of the myriad things that can go awry with pregnancy, Down syndrome is perhaps the best known. In the past year, several new tests have become available to detect the condition prenatally, as early as 10 weeks of pregnancy. Whether these ...

I shared a post last week describing Jill's House, a facility that provides "a rhythm of care" through respite services for children with special needs. Today Jennifer Reynolds, who works at Jill's House, shares some thoughts about her experience:

Every child we have served at Jill's House has taught ...