Penny in Her Own Words: The PATH Process and Planning for the Future
I asked Penny if she would be willing to answer a few questions about her experience with the PATH process. These are her unedited responses: How would you explain what…
I asked Penny if she would be willing to answer a few questions about her experience with the PATH process. These are her unedited responses: How would you explain what…
Once a year, a group of people from Penny’s school, family, and community gather together with her to talk about her hopes and dreams for the future through a process…
Penny started planning for her Sweet Sixteen three years ago. It was the topic of many a family walk—who would be invited, what the menu would entail, how we would…
What does it mean to be healthy? Can people with disabilities be healthier than typical people? What does it mean to be healed by God? Dr. Brian Brock, author of…
Meritocracy is the antithesis to love. I first wrote those words almost two years ago, when we were traveling cross-country and we were taking regular hikes as a family. On…
A prominent pastor and theologian spoke at length earlier this week about why God might make some people unattractive. He lumped together “ugliness” with disfigurement and disability and then went…
I used to think that “awareness” was too small a word for what we need in order to change the perceptions and reality for people with Down syndrome like our…
“The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.” That’s what my sister wrote to me after I showed her an email from Penny. Penny, unprompted, had sent me a Google…
My name is Penny and I have an extra chromosome because I have Down syndrome. In my daily life I wake up independently, make breakfast, and go to school. My…
I remember this time, back when Penny was really little, when we were at a birthday party together and another mom was there with her child who also had a…