"A great read, entertaining and educational."
— Sandra McElwee, mom of Sean, star of Born This Way
"A refreshingly comedic look at parenting a child with a disability."
— Eliza Woloson, author of My Friend Isabelle
"A story of struggle and triumph, but more than anything else, it’s a story of love."
— Timothy P. Shriver Ph.D., Chairman, Special Olympics
One of Motherwell's "favorite parenting books of the year."
A STORY OF SCIENCE, LOVE AND DOWN SYNDROME
In MY HEART CAN'T EVEN BELIEVE IT, journalist, blogger, and NPR contributor Amy Silverman tells the story of the birth and growth of her daughter, Sophie, and the Down syndrome diagnosis that changed everything.
Amy wrote the book she desperately wanted to read but couldn't find, meant not just for parents of kids with Down Syndrome, but rather a story for anyone touched by disability, a story about science, and a story about being different: something that all of us can certainly identify with. It's part memoir, part investigative reporting, part parenting manual — a crash course in genetics, history, politics, pop culture, education, medicine, health care policy, marriage, motherhood and family.
MY HEART CAN'T EVEN BELIEVE IT
is published by Woodbine House.
Copies of the book are available at Changing Hands in Phoenix, Arizona (signed copies available!).
HOW THE BOOK GOT ITS NAME...
I stood alone in the Phoenix airport on a hot June night, giggling, having just discovered the going away gift my barely 10-year-old daughter Sophie left on my phone, in the form of 39 self-portraits and a two-minute video.
The photos are all close-ups of her face – slightly crooked bangs, more-than-slightly-crooked teeth, smiling, frowning, goofy-with-her-tongue-out. In the video, Sophie alternately sings one of her favorite songs, “Gangnam Style” and begs me to take her along on this work trip to New York City, but mostly she talks about how much she loves me. This is a familiar refrain, and one that for me never gets old. Not yet, at least.
"You are the best mom I ever had,” she tells me. On homemade cards, in handwriting only I can read, she writes, “I love you because I love you because I love you.”
And this time, on the tiny iPhone screen: “I love you so much my heart can’t even believe it."
