Stubbornness and Down Syndrome
“People with Down syndrome are stubborn.” I’ve heard it from the time Penny was born. From therapists, teachers, doctors, and other parents. It has always struck me as a negative…
Image from TIME essay
TIME: How Disability Changed What Easter Means to My Family
I wrote an essay for TIME that came out today: How Disability Changed What Easter Means to My Family. As I write in this essay, when our daughter Penny was…
Interview With Penny for World Down Syndrome Day
Penny, March 21 is World Down Syndrome Day. It’s a day to celebrate the lives of people like you, who were born with Down syndrome. Can you start by telling…
A Few Things I Learned From Writing About Prenatal Testing
24 hours after my essay for the New York Times came out online, I learned it was also in the print edition! So that was exciting. But I also learned…
Screenshot of image used in the New York Times article
New York Times: I’m Thankful Every Day for the Decision I Made After My Prenatal Tests
Gulp. I got to write an opinion piece for the New York Times about prenatal tests and Down syndrome. There are all sorts of problems with the prenatal testing industry…
S5 E8 | What Disability Teaches Us About Health and Wholeness with Dr. Brian Brock
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 | Plough Essay
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 Glimpse of Belonging at the Beginning of Down Syndrome Awareness Month
I dream of a world where everyone belongs. Last weekend, Penny was a bridesmaid in her old-babysitter-best-friend-for-life’s wedding, and I got a little glimpse of the joy of belonging. (Go…
What’s Wrong With Having Down Syndrome?
What’s wrong with having Down syndrome? It was a question I asked many years ago, when our daughter Penny was first diagnosed with an extra copy of the 21st chromosome.…
Texas’s Abortion Law and Down Syndrome
"Why would it be a bad thing for five times more people with Down syndrome to be in the world?" asked my 13-year-old son William, whose older sister Penny has…
