We Are Beloved: The Mindset Shift That Transformed Our Family
I remember being at a retreat where there were a lot of children present who were around the same age as Penny, our daughter who has Down syndrome. I spent…
God Loves You
God loves you. It’s the most basic message. It is central to the entire Bible. It is central to Jesus’ teachings. It is central— foundational—to the New Testament. And yet…
World Down Syndrome Day 2024
Happy World Down Syndrome Day! Our daughter Penny is 18, and we join thousands of other people around the globe who want to raise awareness about Down syndrome today. First,…
Mothers Can Pass Along Belovedness
What if, as mothers, we believed our own belovedness and passed that belief along to our daughters? I really appreciated Alexandra D’Amour’s essay for the New York Times about toxic…
Photo December 2008
When Love Shows Up
On Christmas we celebrate because love has shown up in our world. Not in some vague, abstract way. But love, in the flesh, in the person of Jesus. And when…
Stepping Off the Ladder of Comparison
I’ve been writing about Penny for a long time now. Along the way, I’ve often written of her accomplishments. The cuteness of hearing her pronounce “medium-hard words” when she asked…
4 Ways to Deal with Brokenness
The world feels shattered. Some days I feel shattered. What do we do with all our broken pieces? I’ve found that there are four ways to deal with the idea…
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Who “Deserves” Rewards? | Life to the Full
Modern people are rewarded for hard work, intelligence, athletic ability, and physical appearance. Studies have shown that people who conform to our modern Western ideals of height and what we…
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We All Need to Know We Are Beloved
Healing is so tender and scary and so very beautiful. Over the past two weeks, I have been reminded of these truths through a flurry of speaking engagements. From the…
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Please Don’t Call Anyone Low-Functioning
I’ve been trying to figure out why it bothers me to hear people described as “high functioning” and “low functioning.” The other day, a friend of mine mentioned that a…
