I bought this book in December. A friend
recommended it highly. I usually steer clear of books about "special" children;
prefering not to dwell on the heartbreak and tragedy most of them center on. So
it was June when I finally started reading the book. From the first page I was
hooked. At turns I laughed, I cried, but most of all I understood!
The
story chronicles the second pregnancy of John and Martha Beck, at the time,
both were Harvard graduate students, who had earned two degrees apiece and were
hard at work on their P.H.D.'s Both were on the fast track academically and
careerwise. Five months into her pregnancy, a pregnancy from Hell I might add,
an amnieocentisis revealed the little boy she carried had Downs Syndrome.
Though most of the academic and medical community encouraged them to
abort the fetus; so not to endager their "sterling" career paths; the Becks
opted to keep the baby. The book is filled with metaphysical, psychic, and
spiritual happenings, "angels" if you will, that encourage and comfort the
Becks. In the the midst of dispair and uncertainty, the Becks are surrounded by
peace, love, and protection, that can only be described as "other worldly". But
more then that, during the months preceeding the birth of Adam, the Becks
experience their own "rebirth". The ability to step back and look at the world,
and evaluate what really matters, and what doesn't. To see people and
situations as they really are.
Adam's birth gifted them with the
opportunity to slow down and find beauty in the ordinary. Referring to Adam,
Martha beautifully states,"In his strange and not quite human way, he is
constantly reminding me that real magic doesn't come from achieving the perfect
appearance, from being Cinderella at the ball with both glass slippers and a
killer hairstyle. The real magic is in the pumpkin, in the mice, in the
moonlight, not beyond ordinary life, but within."
For me this book
affirmed what every parent of every "special" child intuitively knows. These
children are wonderful gifts. That within the pain, the dispair, the tears is a
beauty so profound it is life altering. Martha concludes her insightful book,
"It hurts everytime people look at Adam and see only the deformity of their own
perceptions, instead of the beauty before their eyes. But more and more, I feel
this pain not for my son, but for the people who are too blind to see him. The
lessons I have learned from Adam have hurt more than just about anything else I
have felt in my life. And it's been worth it, a thousand times over."
This book is a must read for any parent of a "special" child. I can't recommend
it highly enough.