{"id":260,"date":"2010-06-07T08:43:32","date_gmt":"2010-06-07T08:43:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thinplaces\/2010\/06\/the-gift-of-a-daughter-with-down-syndrome.html"},"modified":"2010-06-07T08:43:32","modified_gmt":"2010-06-07T08:43:32","slug":"the-gift-of-a-daughter-with-down-syndrome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/06\/the-gift-of-a-daughter-with-down-syndrome.html","title":{"rendered":"The Gift of a Daughter with Down Syndrome"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I have an essay in the current issue of the Princeton Alumni Weekly. It is called &#8220;A Good and Perfect Gift: How a Daughter with &#8216;Limitations&#8217; Helped Her Mother Break Through Boundaries.&#8221; It begins:&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div><font face=\"Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica\" size=\"3\"><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-size: 11px;line-height: 16px\"><font face=\"arial, helvetica, hirakakupro-w3, osaka, 'ms pgothic', sans-serif\" size=\"3\"><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-size: 13px;line-height: normal\"><br \/><\/span><\/font><\/span><\/font><\/div>\n<div><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;font-size: 15px;line-height: 22px\"><span class=\"Apple-style-span\"><\/span>We found out that our baby was a girl at my 20-week ultrasound. It was probably then that I started to envision her future. I slipped into assumptions that she, as our first child, would be verbally precocious, walk early, and impress other people with her abilities. Maybe someday she&#8217;d go to Princeton and be an English major; maybe someday, we&#8217;d discuss books together. Maybe someday, she would be just like me.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><font face=\"'Times New Roman', Times, serif\" size=\"4\"><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-size: 15px;line-height: 22px\"><br \/><\/span><\/font><\/div>\n<div><font face=\"'Times New Roman', Times, serif\" size=\"4\"><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-size: 15px;line-height: 22px\">To keep reading, click <a href=\"http:\/\/paw.princeton.edu\/issues\/2010\/06\/02\/perspective\/\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/span><\/font><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have an essay in the current issue of the Princeton Alumni Weekly. It is called &#8220;A Good and Perfect Gift: How a Daughter with &#8216;Limitations&#8217; Helped Her Mother Break Through Boundaries.&#8221; It begins:&nbsp; We found out that our baby was a girl at my 20-week ultrasound. It was probably then that I started to&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,1,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-disability","category-down-syndrome","category-family"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Gift of a Daughter with Down Syndrome - 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\/06\/the-gift-of-a-daughter-with-down-syndrome.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Gift of a Daughter with Down Syndrome - Thin Places\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I have an essay in the current issue of the Princeton Alumni Weekly. It is called &#8220;A Good and Perfect Gift: How a Daughter with &#8216;Limitations&#8217; Helped Her Mother Break Through Boundaries.&#8221; It begins:&nbsp; We found out that our baby was a girl at my 20-week ultrasound. It was probably then that I started to&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/06\/the-gift-of-a-daughter-with-down-syndrome.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Thin Places\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-06-07T08:43:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"amyjuliabecker\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Gift of a Daughter with Down Syndrome - 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\/06\/the-gift-of-a-daughter-with-down-syndrome.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Gift of a Daughter with Down Syndrome - Thin Places","og_description":"I have an essay in the current issue of the Princeton Alumni Weekly. It is called &#8220;A Good and Perfect Gift: How a Daughter with &#8216;Limitations&#8217; Helped Her Mother Break Through Boundaries.&#8221; It begins:&nbsp; We found out that our baby was a girl at my 20-week ultrasound. It was probably then that I started to&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/06\/the-gift-of-a-daughter-with-down-syndrome.html","og_site_name":"Thin Places","article_published_time":"2010-06-07T08:43:32+00:00","author":"amyjuliabecker","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/06\/the-gift-of-a-daughter-with-down-syndrome.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/06\/the-gift-of-a-daughter-with-down-syndrome.html","name":"The Gift of a Daughter with Down Syndrome - Thin Places","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-06-07T08:43:32+00:00","dateModified":"2010-06-07T08:43:32+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#\/schema\/person\/4dde10eee38770361dc9b46a9413776b"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/06\/the-gift-of-a-daughter-with-down-syndrome.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/06\/the-gift-of-a-daughter-with-down-syndrome.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/06\/the-gift-of-a-daughter-with-down-syndrome.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Gift of a Daughter with Down Syndrome"}]},{"@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\/260","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=260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}