The day Joey was diagnosed with Down syndrome, we left the geneticist’s office with a book called Babies with Down Syndrome: A New Parents’ Guide. In the introduction, the editor encourages the parent carrying the weight of the heavy burden to take lots of pictures of their...

Several months ago, my family went to war. Okay, maybe “war” is a little dramatic, but that’s what it felt like. Over the course of about three weeks, we went from being the happiest and healthiest we had been in a long time to fighting battles on every front. All five of us...

This post is part 2 in a series. Check out part 1 here.

I am fully aware of the variety of personalities out there–introverts, extroverts, talkers, thinkers, feelers. We are not a “one size fits all” species for sure. But I maintain that a healthy and active tribe...

When you were a child, did you dream about your future? Did you have a plan for your college, your career, your family? Did you picture how many children you would have, what their names would be, what your house would look like?

How has that worked out for you?

Try as we might, we cannot control...

This isn’t how it’s supposed to be. We’ve all uttered those words at some point, but for a while they basically became my mantra. This morning I read through some old posts and journal entries from the days (ahem, months) following Joey’s Down syndrome diagnosis,...

A few months ago, my family of five pale Ohioans spent an afternoon at Daytona Beach. The conditions were perfect: the sun shone without melting us, the water temperature was refreshing, and people milled about without overcrowding. We set up on the beach, sun-screened ourselves, and settled in...

What is your comfort food?

Over the weekend my entire family came down with a stomach bug. My entire family. All five of us. What a vision: four of us sprawled out on various couches and chairs, covered in blankets, watching 1990s family movies, offering each other millions of...