“I have something for you,” my dear friend Kim Porter messaged me on Facebook the other night. The next morning, I was holding a tiny brown paper bag. I gasped when I pulled out the contents: a pendant hanging on a ball chain, fashioned out of an old silver spoon, featuring a bronze cutout of […]

Yesterday afternoon, I snuck out for lunch with someone I met on the Internet. I didn’t tell my husband about it. I had an awesome time. And you know what? I’ll do it again. I’m not sure how I met Lisa — maybe on Instagram, or through this blog. But for a while, I’ve been […]

For a long time — longer than I like to admit — I thought of Sophie as my kid who has Down syndrome. Somewhere along the way, that fell aside. And it’s not like I never think about it — I think about it dozens of times a day, I bet — but most of […]

Earlier this week, during the Big Meeting at school, I mentioned to Sophie’s team that she’s been nostalgic lately for pre-school. Several heads around the table nodded. She’s been talking about it at school, too. It’s pretty clear that Sophie has been thinking about her old school as a way of preparing to go to […]

I’d known for weeks that I had to attend a meeting to discuss Sophie’s future — but I couldn’t bring myself to open the envelope from the psychologist till I was in the car, headed for the school. I knew what was inside: All of the testing that has been done on Sophie over the […]

By the time you get to my age, you have some hard and fast rules. I will not go up in a hot air balloon or ride in a helicopter or bungee jump. I will never climb on the back of a horse. You’re not going to find me swimming in the ocean or any […]

The birthday monsters are in town. (Apologies to Sandra Boynton.) I got an email last week from Sophie’s aide: [Sophie's teacher] and I wanted to let you know that we had a talk with Sophie today about her birthday. There have been several occasions recently where Sophie has told a student she was not invited […]