Favorite Posts of 2013

Today’s list includes my four favorite posts I wrote for other venues:

How to Talk to Kids (And Parents) About Disability    (for PBS Parents): Even though I have a daughter with Down syndrome, for a long time I didn’t know what to say when we encountered other people with physical or intellectual disabilities. My post for PBS Parents on how I’ve learned to talk (and think) about disability. 

Five Things I Wish I Had Known When My Daughter Was Born With Down Syndrome (for Chai Mamas) “You think Down syndrome means tragedy, and people will compare your experience to that of losing a child in a car accident or to cancer or some other horrible fate. And though you will experience a sense of loss, you will realize eventually that you have lost a hypothetical child, and that the child right in front of you, this child, with her sparkling eyes and crooked teeth and warm soft hand, this child is a blessing. In time, because of the privilege of knowing and loving her, you will realize that your grief has turned to gratitude and that your worry has turned to wonder.”

Missing Out On Beautiful (for Huffington Post Parents) How can I put into words the beauty I see when I look at my daughter? 

The Social Construction of Selective Abortion, (for theAtlantic.com) “Statistics also suggest that at least 50% of all fetuses with Down syndrome in the US are aborted. That rate becomes higher among women who have a prenatal diagnosis of DS (probably 70%) and higher still when talking about other Western nations (90%). So, while being born a girl in Asia is not exactly the same as being born with Down syndrome here, I wanted to suggest some parallels.”