Description
🏆 2025 BIBA® Parenting Memoir (Down Syndrome) Winner!
Like any first-time mother, Suzanne assumed having her first baby would come with all the usual pleasures and trials of motherhood, except one — an unexpected diagnosis of Down syndrome when her son, Owen, was seven days old. This discovery derailed every expectation she had of parenthood. The fantastic plans she had laid out in her imagination for her perfect child crumbled, and forced her to confront her own beliefs, and to embrace a world of uncertainty. Suzanne shares details of her own transformation from, initially, complete grief and denial to total acceptance and advocacy for her son, just as he is. She takes the reader with her on a quest for full inclusion for Owen from preschool through high school. “Life will not be a special needs class” became her motto, and she still uses it as her guide today. While Suzanne’s book is about the particularities of raising a son with Down syndrome, it is more broadly about being a mother. Any parent will take away valuable lessons on the uncertainties, frustrations, and divine joys we encounter while raising a child.
