"Road Map to Holland"

Christina of Kwisteena’s Kwaziness has been mom to Kallie for 9 years, but reading my book is reminding her of many of the feelings she had, in the beginning.  She writes, “I remember how I felt when people first started finding out about it. I was embarrassed and wondered if people thought of me as ‘damaged’. I remember when we were out in public and I wondered, just like Jennifer, if people noticed, I questioned their responses and wondered what they were thinking. I remember how badly I wanted Kallie to keep her tongue in her mouth that I would tap her tongue all the time to make her pull it in! I like when she talked about the visit with her mom and the pictures her mother took and how she ripped up one of them that was not flattering. I wanted all Kallie’s pictures to be perfect and for people to think she was beautiful and that Down Syndrome wasn’t that bad. I wanted people to accept her. And lastly, like Jennifer, I get offended about all the talk of prenatal testing and the goal of people not having ‘a child like mine’. “

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