After our daughter Penny was born and diagnosed with Down syndrome, I felt as though I could no longer imagine our future as a family. The messages I had heard about Down syndrome were negative and outdated. I didn’t have any idea how to think about who she would become or who we would become as a family.

Now, 18 years later, I can testify to the goodness of our family life. Not the perfection of it! But the goodness of three kids who bicker with each other and get jealous and annoyed, who bake cookies and play Clue and do the dishes together, who give and receive to each other and to us. And while there are plenty of factors that have contributed to that goodness, a lot of it comes down to having a renewed imagination for family life.

Over the years, we have learned to identify the negative messages our culture tells us about people with disabilities, and we have learned to replace those messages with a different understanding. Shifting our mindset around disability has helped us to believe in possibilities for our family’s future.

Last fall, I had a kind of epiphany. It really did feel like a lightbulb moment, when I realized that these 18 years of parenting has given me insight that I longed to pass along to other parents like me. And so I developed a workshop called Reimagining Family Life with Disability, which I was able to teach online for the first time in May.

Now, that same course is available in three different formats—live, virtual workshop, online course, and video teaching for groups. I would love for you to take it yourself or tell a friend about this opportunity. I’ve come to believe not only that life can be good for families affected by disability, but also that our whole society will be better if we learn how to reimagine family life and community life so that people with disabilities belong and matter.

I hope you will join me as we reimagine family life with disability.

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MORE WITH AMY JULIA:

• The Good Life Belongs to the Ones who are Unimportant and Overlooked
• Creating Belonging Within Families
• Sometimes Holidays Are Hard for Kids With Disabilities
• Penny in Her Own Words: Camp PALS 2024

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