Table of Contents: Summer 2019

Feature

“I Needed a Different Parenting Handbook…”

Belated diagnoses of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) changed the way this mom parented her children, and the way she savored their successes. Join with her as she recounts some of their small victories, and hard-won life lessons, from their 20-year journey. | BY ROSEMARY SHULMAN

Personal Essays

“Finding My Inner Mom”

For years, I felt ambivalence about becoming a parent, and worry that I wouldn’t be a “perfect” mother. In an open letter to my daughter, I look back on that moment of calm and utter clarity when we met | BY SUZANNE O’BRIEN

“I Can Still Be Shocked”

Fifteen years into parenting in a transracial family, I thought I had heard it all—with appropriate comebacks at the ready—until an interaction with a racist (former) boss left me simply dumbfounded. | BY BILLY CUCHENS

Parent-to-Parent

“When I Knew I Was Going to Adopt”

Parents share the moment they knew in their hearts that their path to parenthood would involve adoption, whether they always knew or it came after years of trying to conceive.