Road Map to Holland: How I Found My Way Through My Son’s First Two Years With Down Syndrome is an intelligent, warm story of a mother who struggled in a very realistic way with a child born with Down syndrome. Jennifer Graf Groneberg
tells what followed the birth of her twins, step-by-step with the aftershocks and emotions of misunderstanding his diagnosis and what his future would hold. She continues on as a strong woman advocating for Avery, her son with Down syndrome. Jennifer touches people everywhere she goes, and Avery has a real hand in helping her.
I am proud of him. I feel as if he is my brother because of our extra chromosome. When my son was born, I didn’t know how to be a parent and was scared. However, when he opened his eyes, I knew just then that my life had changed for the better. My son was not the one with the diagnosis… It was me!
I have Mosaic Down Syndrome (MDS). I relate to others who travel that unknown road and draw blue prints to map with them. As I read Road Map to Holland, I wanted so much to reach through the words on each page — just to hug her and say, “Jennifer, it’s going to be okay!â€
I loaned my book to my father. He loved it just as much as I did — as a full cycle of parent to child to parent. The words inside this book are a genuine piece of majesty. They are a continuation of Emily Pearl Kingsley’s world-renowned poem, “Welcome to Holland!†I know about Holland; I live there.
Reviewed by Casey Morton, IMDSA’s Self Advocate & Spokesperson
Learn more about MDS at the International Mosaic Down Syndrome Association at http://www.imdsa.org/.
