{"id":126,"date":"2010-01-25T09:43:00","date_gmt":"2010-01-25T09:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thinplaces\/2010\/01\/i-want-to-be-like-penny.html"},"modified":"2010-01-25T09:43:00","modified_gmt":"2010-01-25T09:43:00","slug":"i-want-to-be-like-penny","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/01\/i-want-to-be-like-penny.html","title":{"rendered":"“I Want to Be Like Penny”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I dropped Penny off at school this morning, and a mom of another little girl in her class pulled me aside. “Alli insisted on wearing sunglasses this morning because she wanted to be like Penny.” <\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
I turn around and there’s Alli (not her real name), in her raincoat and hat and boots, on this gray and dreary day, pulling out her sunglasses because she wants to be like her friend Penny, whose pink spectacles are perched on her nose.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
I grinned and said, “That’s fabulous,” but it took me until I got home and sat down with a cup of tea to realize what had just happened. <\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Penny, as I’ve reported before, goes to school in an integrated classroom. Which means that there are eight “typically-developing” children, and five or six kids with “special needs” of some sort or another. Penny is the only child in her class with Down syndrome, the only one who wears glasses. Not long ago, it would have been unthinkable for a child with Down syndrome to be in a classroom with typically developing peers, not to mention unthinkable for that child to sometimes lead the class in reading books out loud or shout out answers to the teacher’s questions. <\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
And I have to imagine that not long ago, it would have been unthinkable for another little girl to want to wear glasses just like her friend with Down syndrome. Of course, Alli doesn’t think about Penny as her friend with Down syndrome. She just thinks about her as her friend. <\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
I’ve been told that this–friendship in particular– will all get harder as Penny gets older. And yet I’m hopeful that the relationships that are forming now, the assumptions being overcome now, will pave the way for possibilities that once seemed impossible. I’m hopeful that years from now, I’ll still know kids who want to be like Penny. <\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
For now, I’m content to smile at Alli in her sunglasses in the rain.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I dropped Penny off at school this morning, and a mom of another little girl in her class pulled me aside. “Alli insisted on wearing sunglasses this morning because she wanted to be like Penny.” I turn around and there’s Alli (not her real name), in her raincoat and hat and boots, on this gray…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-down-syndrome"],"yoast_head":"\n"I Want to Be Like Penny" - Thin Places<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/01\/i-want-to-be-like-penny.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\""I Want to Be Like Penny" - Thin Places\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I dropped Penny off at school this morning, and a mom of another little girl in her class pulled me aside. “Alli insisted on wearing sunglasses this morning because she wanted to be like Penny.” I turn around and there’s Alli (not her real name), in her raincoat and hat and boots, on this gray…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/01\/i-want-to-be-like-penny.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Thin Places\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-01-25T09:43:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_dLvJRmlFr_k\/S12wrhBq-HI\/AAAAAAAAACo\/0ZXNoinl_hE\/s320\/IMG_4441.JPG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"amyjuliabecker\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"\"I Want to Be Like Penny\" - Thin Places","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/01\/i-want-to-be-like-penny.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"\"I Want to Be Like Penny\" - Thin Places","og_description":"I dropped Penny off at school this morning, and a mom of another little girl in her class pulled me aside. “Alli insisted on wearing sunglasses this morning because she wanted to be like Penny.” I turn around and there’s Alli (not her real name), in her raincoat and hat and boots, on this gray…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/01\/i-want-to-be-like-penny.html","og_site_name":"Thin Places","article_published_time":"2010-01-25T09:43:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_dLvJRmlFr_k\/S12wrhBq-HI\/AAAAAAAAACo\/0ZXNoinl_hE\/s320\/IMG_4441.JPG"}],"author":"amyjuliabecker","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/01\/i-want-to-be-like-penny.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/01\/i-want-to-be-like-penny.html","name":"\"I Want to Be Like Penny\" - Thin Places","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/01\/i-want-to-be-like-penny.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/01\/i-want-to-be-like-penny.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_dLvJRmlFr_k\/S12wrhBq-HI\/AAAAAAAAACo\/0ZXNoinl_hE\/s320\/IMG_4441.JPG","datePublished":"2010-01-25T09:43:00+00:00","dateModified":"2010-01-25T09:43:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#\/schema\/person\/4dde10eee38770361dc9b46a9413776b"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/01\/i-want-to-be-like-penny.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/01\/i-want-to-be-like-penny.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/01\/i-want-to-be-like-penny.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_dLvJRmlFr_k\/S12wrhBq-HI\/AAAAAAAAACo\/0ZXNoinl_hE\/s320\/IMG_4441.JPG","contentUrl":"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_dLvJRmlFr_k\/S12wrhBq-HI\/AAAAAAAAACo\/0ZXNoinl_hE\/s320\/IMG_4441.JPG"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/01\/i-want-to-be-like-penny.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"“I Want to Be Like Penny”"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/","name":"Thin Places","description":"Amy Julia Becker on Faith, Family, and Disability","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#\/schema\/person\/4dde10eee38770361dc9b46a9413776b","name":"amyjuliabecker","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/222\/2222023dcae76abe6e896a3cf80e9836x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/222\/2222023dcae76abe6e896a3cf80e9836x96.jpg","caption":"amyjuliabecker"},"description":"Amy Julia Becker writes about theology, disability, family, and culture. Two major life experiences have shaped her writing and her faith\u00e2\u20ac\u201dcaring for her mother-in-law as she battled cancer and welcoming her daughter Penny into the world after she was diagnosed at birth with Down syndrome. Both experiences expanded and enriched her understanding of what it means to be human and to receive each and every person as a gift.\u00c2\u00a0 A graduate of Princeton University and Princeton Theological Seminary, she is the author of Penelope Ayers: A Memoir, and the forthcoming A Good and Perfect Gift (Bethany House). Her essays have appeared in First Things, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Christian Century, ChristianityToday.com, and Bloom, among other online venues.","sameAs":["http:\/\/amyjuliabecker.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/author\/amyjuliabecker"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}