Welcome! Let Me Introduce Myself
Hello friends! I’ve been writing blog posts, teaching, speaking, and writing books for years, but I wanted to pause for a minute and introduce myself to any new readers and…
Hello friends! I’ve been writing blog posts, teaching, speaking, and writing books for years, but I wanted to pause for a minute and introduce myself to any new readers and…
How can we talk about race and disability without conflating the two? How can white, able-bodied, neurotypical people enter into this conversation? What is the difference between “white fragility” and…
This week we celebrated the end of Penny’s years in middle school with a car parade through campus, a dinner out—for the first time in four months—as a family, and…
Our daughter Penny is 14. She loves Taylor Swift and Fuller House and the Yankees. She betrays many signs of becoming a typical teenager: she groans when I wake her…
“I suspect every pregnant woman imagines a hypothetical life for her child. And every pregnant woman knows that child’s life won’t work out exactly as she imagined it. Life will…
Today is World Down Syndrome Day, a day in which we celebrate the life of our daughter Penny and of all the women and men with Down syndrome all over…
Penny's gift of encouragement is a joy to receive! I received some disappointing news this week (unrelated to the coronavirus) and took out my phone to send my husband—Peter Becker—a…
When our daughter was diagnosed with Down syndrome, we felt fear for her future, but love carried us all. I’m increasingly convinced that one of the things that keeps us…
Jean Vanier, founder of the L’Arche community, beloved author, speaker, teacher, and mentor to thousands, winner of the Templeton prize—sexually abused multiple women over the course of many decades, according…
"How do your other children react to having a sister with Down syndrome?" People ask this question frequently, both out of curiosity and also from concern about the long-term impact…