Author: Jillian Benfield

There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, the pool was the perfect temperature and we laughed as our daughter pretended to be Peter Pan while

My birthday was last week. I have a hard time believing I’m 29 and yet 29 feels like it’s been a long time coming. At

One year ago, my family reached the pinnacle point of our year of grief: it’s the day Anderson had open-heart surgery. It rounded out the

Recently a mother of a child with Down syndrome, Courtney Baker, mailed a letter to her former OB-GYN that went viral. In the letter she

  This Down syndrome blog post is my graduation speech from The Pilot Parents of Southern Arizona’s Partners in Leadership course on the responsibility of

The daylight was just beginning to break as we drove up the mountain near our New Mexico home. We were looking to escape, even just

  Dear Violet, It’s very common for parents to say they “can’t believe” their child is now whatever age they are turning. But I don’t

I never feel as hard-pressed as a mom as I do on Tuesdays. It’s early morning pre-school drop-off, back-to-back therapy sessions and one leftover hour

What to say to friend whose child faces surgery –  I wrote several months ago about my dear friend who found out her daughter would be

Powerful. That’s the first word that came to mind after reading the new book, A Parent’s Guide to Down Syndrome. That may not be the