Columns

This waiting has offered me much time to think, to mull over the worst that can happen.

Later, Robert and I find Lydia and Noah among a buoyant pack of band members. Noah is energetic and radiant. He’s standing straighter, carrying himself with new confidence. As dramatically…

I, the mother to be, must spin a web around this foster child whom we will soon take in and prepare to adopt. I must create fibers strong enough to…

Tonight, I’m less worried about whether my husband and I will be up to the task of raising a child who has suffered the trauma of losing her parents. No,…

We still have lots to work out about his being transgender and what I will, or will not, allow. But we chat now, too. Noah talks about his upcoming band…

I’m uncomfortable in this chair, in this place, under these too-bright lights—all I can think is that perhaps we shouldn’t have come.

You breathe it in, but you want to hold your breath. There’s always an edge to joy. It doesn’t last. He trips over the garden hose. The seatbelt digs into…

I sat down on the side of his bed. He was pale, no – white. The color completely drained from his face. Eyes shut; tube taped over his mouth. I…

The day before Rowan’s open-heart surgery, when they drew his blood, I held him on my lap. I talked him through the pain. I focused on the process, on what…

Still, I wasn’t sure if I could successfully teach and accommodate James on my own and maintain my sanity. But I had to try. In the end, it was liberating…

We can’t fix Rowan’s heart—that’s the surgeon’s job. It took me a long time to accept that. I wish I could be in control, or that I could make it…