Year My Son and I Were Born: A Story Of Down Syndrome, Motherhood, And Self-Discovery - Softcover

Soper, Kathryn

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0762760346 ISBN 13: 9780762760343

Publisher: Globe Pequot Press, 2010

Synopsis

A brutally honest yet beautiful journey of how one mother learned to bond with her disabled son and gained a new perspective on life.

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

For most of her life, Kathryn Soper was like most people in one key respect: She hadn’t given any serious thought to the subject of disability. That all changed the day her son, Thomas, showed up with an extra chromosome. 
With six other children at home, Soper was prepared for the challenges another newborn would bring. But after Thomas’s complicated birth, his diagnosis Down syndrome forced her to face her deepest fears and weaknesses, her ignorance and prejudice, and her limitations as a mother and as a human being. Her struggle, coupled with the demands of caring for a fragile baby and juggling her family’s needs, sparked the worst depression she’d experienced in decades.
 In The Year My Son and I Were Born, Soper takes us along on her personal journey through Thomas’s tumultuous first year as she strives to balance the loss of the child she thought she would have with loyalty for the baby she actually holds in her arms. Can she love Thomas for himself? Can she protect him from the world’s insensitivity andfrom her own doubts?
Ultimately, Soper escaped her downward spiral of despair and emerged with newfound peace. Antidepressant therapy restored her equilibrium, and interactions with friends and family brought needed perspective. But the most profound change came through her growing relationship with Thomas. His radiant presence shone through her outer layers of self, where fear and guilt festered, and reached the center of her very being where love, acceptance, and gratitude blossomed in abundance.

From the Back Cover:

How the birth of a disabled son led one mother to transcend her deepest fears and embrace life
in all its glorious imperfection.

About this edition

• Publisher: Globe Pequot Press
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0762760346
• ISBN 13: 9780762760343
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 336