Take a moment to think about the places you routinely travel within your neighborhood and community. Do you see Down syndrome? If so, where? Most of the time when I pose this question, people draw a blank. Why? Because for the most part, we live in a world that doesn’t create the spaces necessary for…
We Are All Image Bearers of God
“If we make space in our lives for certain kinds of people but not others, we will never know the fullness of God or understand the depths of God’s love for humanity.” ~ Heather Avis It was the last day of family camp. My husband and I sat with our two-year-old daughter at the breakfast…
Becoming My Truest Self
I adored our family of four. We had two happy, silly, lovable boys who were just beginning preschool and kindergarten. Steve and I were starting to feel like real adults, with jobs and kids and a house to take care of. Life was complicated, but beautiful. We each had our own personalities and quirks, which…
You Knit Me Together: All God’s Kids Have Special Needs
In My Prayer Closet My prayer closet is often a bathtub filled with bubbles. And it was while soaking in this prayer closet, at the end of a particular hard day, that I found the words of Psalm 139:13 echoing in my head, a cadence that seemed almost taunting. You knit me together… You knit…
Jesus Prom: Loving People Like Jesus Loves
My cousin Kathy was born with Down syndrome. Every year when our family would gather at my grandparents’ house in western Kansas, Kathy would set up all the birthday cards she had received the previous year on the kitchen table and explain why each one meant so much to her. She also loved to show us the engagement ring…
Special Needs, Special Love
Editor’s note: This introduction to Bella’s Gift by Rick and Karen Santorum was written by Bella’s older sister, Elizabeth Santorum. In his letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul told us …now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love. – 1 Corinthians 13:13 Love is the greatest of the theological…