Clik here to view.
Three Cheers for Sophie — No Matter What Happens at Tryouts
Sophie is trying out for freshman cheer. Sitting under the fluorescent lights of a big public high school gym for two hours yesterday afternoon, my thoughts veered wildly — from total disgust with...
View ArticleClik here to view.
6 Things We Want You to Know About Down Syndrome: An Open Letter to the...
Dear Teachers, Staff, and Students: Welcome back from Fall Break! I can’t believe an entire quarter of the school year has already flown by. By now you might have met my daughter, Sophie, who is a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Down Syndrome Awareness Month Was a Bust. Now What?
Down Syndrome Awareness Month was a bust this year. For Sophie and me, anyway. Okay, that’s not exactly true. In a lot of ways, October was a terrific month, particularly when it came to educating...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Gratitude Mix 2017
Election results burning in my ears, last November I made a mix tape called “Gratitude.” The idea was to ratchet back the hate and give some thanks, but by the second or third song I’d pulled out...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Airing of Grievances
Sophie’s lawyer asked me to write down some concerns in anticipation of her annual IEP meeting next week. (IEP stands for Individualized Education Plan — the living legal document that guides/dictates...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Please, Stop Looking at Paperwork and Start Looking at My Kid
So far, I have not failed at high school. This morning — the first back after the two-week winter break — Sophie popped out of bed, drank her Carnation Instant Breakfast, and chose a cute new outfit....
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Spaces in Between
It was a pretty Arizona winter night. The church grounds felt like they went on for acres, probably because they did, and as I waited I tried to distract myself by wondering how much this North...
View ArticleClik here to view.
32 Things Sophie Wants You to Know About Her on World Down Syndrome Day
Last night we had a family reunion of sorts. Annabelle and I had traveled to northern California for spring break — the college tour has begun — while Ray and Sophie attended his grandfather’s...
View ArticleClik here to view.
What’s Inclusion Supposed to Look Like in High School, Anyway?
Sophie was applying her third layer of mascara (mostly to her lashes) and muttering under her breath. “I’m taking a big risk today.” “What?” I asked, looking away from traffic for a second....
View ArticleClik here to view.
High School By the Numbers: Four Years, Zero Friends (Guest Post)
Sharon Cowan Landay is the amazing mother of Sophia. I met Sharon when she took Mothers Who Write, the workshop I co-teach, and we stayed friends on Facebook. I saw her post last week, looking for...
View ArticleClik here to view.
And What If Your Kid Falls Through the Best Buddies Crack?
The other day I was excavating Sophie’s bedroom (if you have a teenager, you know what I mean) and happened upon a middle school relic, a Best Buddies application. Sophie has Down syndrome. She’s...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Magic of Public Education
Once upon a time, in a land scorched hard and dry by the sun, public education was in trouble. For decades, the state’s leaders had starved the schools — underpaying teachers, letting buildings decay,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
This is What Inclusion in High School Looks Like, and It’s Not Always Pretty....
Several weeks ago I asked readers and friends and readers who are friends to share stories of inclusion — what works, what doesn’t work. I got a wide range of answers with some repeating themes, and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Birthday Girls
“HEY ARE YOU ALMOST DRESSED?” I yelled out from the bathroom one morning last week. Sophie appeared in the doorway, wearing a tee shirt that said Hopeless Dreamer on the pocket, chewing hard on her...
View ArticleClik here to view.
That Phenomenal Moment
The dust is settling around Sophie’s freshman year of high school. It was one of the messiest yet. And also pretty awesome. Sometimes in life, all it takes is one phenomenal moment to make you feel...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Here’s The Facebook Status Update I’ve Been Afraid to Post
So there’s this Facebook status update that’s been rattling around in my head for weeks now. I’ve been afraid to actually write it down because I don’t want to jinx it. But – what the hell. It goes...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Last First Day
I couldn’t fall asleep last night. That’s unusual. Most nights I crash hard, then I’m up at 2, 3, 4, 5, finally really sleeping when the alarm goes off at 6. But last night I was prowling the house...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Sophie Didn’t Forget
Not long after Ray dropped Sophie off at school yesterday morning, I got a text from my friend Elizabeth. Her daughter and Sophie attend the same high school. The text included an image of an...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Clapping My Hand Over My Own Mouth
Fall is here, but I’m still thinking about my summer gig. I spent the hot months of the year with my nose in the dictionary — rifling through medical journals, Googling the history of words, jotting...
View ArticleClik here to view.
This Is Not A Test
This morning, Sophie’s high school classmates are taking the PSAT. Sophie is home, sleeping in. When she gets up, she’ll do math homework, get her bangs trimmed, watch some YouTube videos. Later in...
View Article