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Thin Places

Mary Karr’s three memoirs all made the bestseller lists, beginning with The Liar’s Club back in 1995, and then Cherry in 2000, and finally, in 2009, with Lit. I started with the Liar’s Club last month, and I didn’t let much else interrupt as I followed Karr’s life story from her childhood in East Texas to…

The age when Americans are getting married is on the rise, and even more people than ever are living together before marriage (see Time’s “Who Needs Marriage?”). In contrast to an earlier generation, many “baby boomers” encourage their children to wait to get married. They want their children to be secure–financially, educationally, and emotionally. And…

Last week, “Perfectly Human” featured a reflection by a Mary Ann Jansen. She described the process of leading a writer’s circle for adults with Down Syndrome. Today, Mary Ann agreed to share some of the reflections these adults offered to the questions: What is Down Syndrome?  How would you explain it to people? How do…

I started work on Penny’s baby book a few months after she was born. The first few pages were easy–showers and gifts and memories of being pregnant. And then I got to the section that asked me to describe her birth. I wrote down her full name, her birthday, her length and weight and eye…

There’s a new test in development that diagnoses Down syndrome without the risk of miscarriage. Instead of using amniocentesis, which involves extracting amniotic fluid from the uterus, this test draws blood from the mother. Since the baby’s blood comingles with the mother’s, the test looks for a heightened presence of the 21st chromosome as a…

Marilee Fuller Becker was born at 11:16 a.m. on January 30, 2011. She weighs 7 pounds 1 ounce and is 20 inches long. We were very glad to finally meet her. So far, she is eating and sleeping well, and we are grateful. Penny and William came to visit yesterday in the hospital, just five…

Before I offer a post (check back tomorrow) in response to a new prenatal test for Down syndrome, I want to clarify some terms. Prenatal screening and prenatal diagnosis are not the same. Prenatal screening comes in a few different forms, but in each case, a blood test, often combined with an ultrasound, provides a…

What does it mean to care about “the poor”? What does it look like to put love and care and compassion into action? And what would motivate anyone to do this? Tim Keller’s newest book, Generous Justice: How God’s Grace Makes Us Just is the best book I’ve ever read about putting Christian faith into…

In this month’s Atlantic, Andrew Bacevich writes about the military-industrial complex in “The Tyranny of Defense, Inc.” Becevich writes, “By diverting social capital from productive to destructive purposes, war and the preparation for war deplete, rather than enhance a nations strength.” He quotes a speech by President Eisenhower: “Every gun that is made, every warship…

    A few months back, I stumbled upon a book entitled Writing Our Lives, edited by Mary Ann Jansen of the Women Writing for a Change Foundation. This book contains selections from the first ever 2010 Writing Circle partnering with the Down Syndrome Association of Greater Cincinnati. Each Wednesday over the next few weeks, I will…
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