I always knew Jonas was trouble. Usually good, lighthearted, creative trouble, but definitely trouble. His teacher met me at the car when I picked him up from school today. I rolled down my window and she handed me a travel sized can of shaving cream, one that I recognized from my own bathroom.

Apparently, Jonas snuck this to school in his pocket this morning where it remained hidden until recess when a new kind of playground terror was unleashed: The Shaving Cream Monster. Jonas squirted children, lathered up the slides and chased his peers around wielding the shaving cream’s instant foaming action as a tool of delight and destruction. The teacher was clearly miffed, and I knew it was wrong but I still turned my head away from my son so I could laugh about it, even as the teacher was informing me of the incident. I apologized mirthfully, and tried to glare at Jonas and send the message that this behavior was VERY WRONG INDEED. Then I called Chris at work to let him know what happened. All I had to say were the words “Jonas, shaving cream, and school” and he went into hysterics on speaker phone. My mother at least had the decency to make sure she couldn’t be heard before laughing out loud.

What am I supposed to do with this kid?

I recently read Road Map to Holland, by Jennifer Graf Groneberg. It is a wonderfully honest, poignant and insightful memoir about a mother’s experience raising an infant with Down syndrome. Groneberg shares her story about her son Avery with such clarity and depth. The book is a humbling yet empowering ride through the terrors of the NICU, the grief of the diagnosis and the amazing, beautiful paradigm shift that allows the reader to see Avery as a wonderful little person filled with his own possibility and promise for the future.

I loved how the book took the reader through the entire experience. There is no glossing over anything. It is real. The hurt, the frustration, and the wonder is all as real as the joy and the love that is also expressed, and neither set of emotions are doctored up to sound trite or simplistic. I think that far too often we hear only of unwarranted embarrassment or put these parents up on some kind of pedestal, one that does nothing to support, but that only alienates and de-humanizes the people involved. Road Map to Holland is a beautiful look into the reality. It is a book that can pave the way for a lot of understanding and bring much hope.