Penelope Ayers is now available on Kindle. Unfortunately, the Kindle edition is not in the same place as the paperback. Go figure (and if any of you are tech savvy and know how to fix this discrepancy, please comment!). And to read a new review, and get introduced to an interesting blog (Holy Vernacular!) click here. I also realized that I’ve never published here an old review of Penelope Ayers that originally appeared on the website of the Lawrenceville School:... Read more

Peter was talking with a friend of ours. I don’t know the context, but she called something “retarded” as they talked. We bumped into her again the next day. She reached out and touched Peter’s arm. “I’m so sorry about what I said yesterday. I don’t know if you even noticed, but I was sleep deprived, and a word I never use came out of my mouth, and I’m so sorry.” He looked her in the eye. “Thanks so much... Read more

I read a lot. Every night before bed. In the bathroom while I’m brushing my teeth or blow drying my hair. If I happen to catch a meal alone. In addition to an array of magazines, I usually have at least two books going. Currently, my bedside table includes: Anagrams by Lorrie Moore, an advance copy of Trish Ryan’s A Maze of Grace, Gilbert Meilander’s Neither Beast Nor God: The Dignity of the Human Person, Eugene Peterson’s Christ Plays in... Read more

I’m sure that everyone knows the feeling. One day you hear yourself talking, and you think, “I sound just like my mother” (or father, or best friend, or whoever). I still find myself using the same incredulous tone modeled to me by my boss at my first job out of college. And I find myself, especially when talking to my husband, using the indirect discourse mastered by members of my family: “Do you think you’ll find time to take out... Read more

Every Friday when I pick Penny up from school, she has stickers on her back. I ask her about them. And she tells me, “I did a great job with Miss Sharon, Mom!” Miss Sharon is her physical therapist. So this past Friday when I asked, she was a little more specific: “I did awesome jumping, Mom!” Early on in her life, we adjusted our expectations for what Penny would be able to do physically and for when she would... Read more

A few months after our daughter Penny was born with Down syndrome, a friend of mine lamented the fact that Penny’s diagnosis would narrow my field of interest and influence. “I want you to be able to write and talk about more than Down syndrome,” she said. I agreed. I wasn’t particularly interested in becoming a disability-rights advocate. I wanted to be able to write for a broad audience about a broad array of topics. I didn’t want to be... Read more

I have a new post at her.meneutics called, “Yoga, an Exercise in Discernment.” It begins: About 16 million adults in the United States practice yoga — an increase of 85 percent from 2004 to 2008 — and the Los Angeles Times reports that both Christian and Jewish groups are incorporating the Eastern meditation practice into their respective faith tradition. Explicitly Christian yoga classes, such as Laurette Willis‘s PraiseMoves, seek to “transform your workout into worship!” I’ve practiced yoga for over... Read more

On Good Friday, Peter and I went to our church to participate in a 24-hour prayer vigil. We’ve never done something like that before, hired a babysitter on a Friday night so we could go pray with some other people we don’t know. It was after that experience that I realized, prayer is stupid. Well, really what I realized is that it’s stupid unless God actually exists and God actually cares about a relationship with people. It’s stupid unless God can effect... Read more

On Good Friday, Peter and I went to our church to participate in a 24-hour prayer vigil. We’ve never done something like that before, hired a babysitter on a Friday night so we could go pray with some other people we don’t know. It was after that experience that I realized, prayer is stupid. Well, really what I realized is that it’s stupid unless God actually exists and God actually cares about a relationship with people. It’s stupid unless God... Read more

I wrote these lines in August of 2007, when Penny was 20 months old: When Penny was born, among the hundreds of gifts we received was an orchid. And this orchid was like no other orchid we had ever seen. It was beautiful, with dozens of fuchsia blooms. I was intimidated enough by the thought of taking care of it that I called the florist to get instructions. Despite my fledgling green thumb, the orchid bloomed. And bloomed. And bloomed.... Read more