Expecting Adam, by Martha Beck. Sure, Martha Beck is on the
kooky end of the spirituality spectrum, but she’s a fantastic writer, and this
memoir of her accidental pregnancy in which her baby was diagnosed in utero with
Down syndrome, never fails to move me. It’s a story of letting go and receiving
the gift of life.

The Road to Daybreak, by Henri Nouwen. This book contains
Nouwen’s journal of his first year at a L’Arche community in which he is
responsible for building a relationship with a young man named Adam. Nouwen,
fresh from academia and the Ivory Tower, learns about God, himself, and what it
means to follow Jesus through Adam’s gentle and vulnerable spirit. (I’d also
recommend Adam, Nouwen’s reflection on his time with Adam.)

Life As We Know It, by Michael Berube. Another memoir about
a family receiving a son with Down syndrome. It’s a bit heady (he’s a
professor, and he does spend a chapter talking about Foucault), but I read it
years ago and still return to some of his images and questions and
encouragements.

The Power of the Powerless, by Christopher De Vinck. This
memoir is written by the brother of a young man who never talked or walked, who
was once compared to a “vegetable.” De Vinck responded by saying, “Well, I
suppose you could call him a vegetable. We called him Oliver.” He writes of the
ways in which his brother Oliver ministered through his presence to their
entire household, and De Vinck includes other stories of families with similar
experiences.

Compassion as a Subversive Activity, by David K. Urion.
Urion, a medical doctor in Boston, writes of his experiences as a physician
caring for very ill children in relation to Mark’s stories of Jesus’ miraculous
healings in the Gospel of Mark.