In this article for the UK Times, sports writer Simon Barnes reflects on his experience of living with and loving his son, Eddie, who has Down’s syndrome. It is a beautiful testimony and relavent given the current situation in the UK with doctors seeking permission to kill disabled infants. As I said in a previous post, disabled children are human beings meant to be loved and cherished. Life is a wonderful gift from God even when that life doesn’t turn out quite as we had hoped.

From the article:

The fact is that nothing to do with love seems so terribly difficult when you get down to it. Nothing seems an impossible demand on your time, your resources, your patience, your temper, your abilities: not because you connect with your inner saintliness but because you just find yourself getting on with it: muddling through. Most non-parents imagine that they could never change a nappy. Then parenthood happens and they do it. It was the same thing when it came to living with Eddie. It’s just parenthood: everyone who has done it knows it.

So Eddie was born, and I have spent the subsequent five years living with him. Not living with Down’s syndrome: what a ridiculous idea. Living with Eddie. Who is my boy. And that really is the beginning, the end of it, and the day-to-day routine of it.