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.