{"id":409,"date":"2010-10-27T13:56:28","date_gmt":"2010-10-27T13:56:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thinplaces\/2010\/10\/perfectly-human-down-syndrome-awareness-month.html"},"modified":"2010-10-27T13:56:28","modified_gmt":"2010-10-27T13:56:28","slug":"perfectly-human-down-syndrome-awareness-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/10\/perfectly-human-down-syndrome-awareness-month.html","title":{"rendered":"Perfectly Human: Down Syndrome Awareness Month"},"content":{"rendered":"

As Down Syndrome Awareness Month comes to a close, I’d like to highlight the four “Perfectly Human” posts that have focused upon relationships with individuals with Down syndrome. There’s much work to be done on behalf of people with Down syndrome–advocacy, medical research, educational advances. And yet the work that seems most significant to me is not done on behalf of these individuals but with them. Change happens through public policy, but it starts with relationships. A doctor who knows a child with Down syndrome uses different words to share a diagnosis of Trisomy 21 than a doctor who understands Downs only as a medical problem. A teenager who is friends with a person with Down syndrome thinks twice before using the word “retard” to joke with a friend. Stories of life, in all its messy, beautiful, idiosyncratic, challenging, rewarding reality can change the world. And so I refer again to these four stories, as a tribute to the hundreds of thousands of individuals with Down syndrome who populate our world and make it a better place:<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
“My Brother Jason<\/a>” Jenni Newbury reflects upon life with a younger brother with Down syndrome.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
“More Than Words<\/a>” Stephanie Brock relates the ways her son Adam has told of God’s goodness even though he doesn’t often use words.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
“Created With a Purpose<\/a>” Holly Nelson explains how her daughter Maggie has ministered to others through her gentle presence.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
“Handprints in the Mirror<\/a>” Guisela Lombardo gives a portrait of her daughter Grace as a gift and a delight.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As Down Syndrome Awareness Month comes to a close, I’d like to highlight the four “Perfectly Human” posts that have focused upon relationships with individuals with Down syndrome. There’s much work to be done on behalf of people with Down syndrome–advocacy, medical research, educational advances. And yet the work that seems most significant to me…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-perfectly-human"],"yoast_head":"\nPerfectly Human: Down Syndrome Awareness Month - 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\/10\/perfectly-human-down-syndrome-awareness-month.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Perfectly Human: Down Syndrome Awareness Month - Thin Places\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As Down Syndrome Awareness Month comes to a close, I’d like to highlight the four “Perfectly Human” posts that have focused upon relationships with individuals with Down syndrome. There’s much work to be done on behalf of people with Down syndrome–advocacy, medical research, educational advances. And yet the work that seems most significant to me…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/10\/perfectly-human-down-syndrome-awareness-month.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Thin Places\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-10-27T13:56:28+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":"Perfectly Human: Down Syndrome Awareness Month - 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\/10\/perfectly-human-down-syndrome-awareness-month.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Perfectly Human: Down Syndrome Awareness Month - Thin Places","og_description":"As Down Syndrome Awareness Month comes to a close, I’d like to highlight the four “Perfectly Human” posts that have focused upon relationships with individuals with Down syndrome. 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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\/409","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=409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}