MSI Press Blog

   Precerpt (excerpt from book prior to publication):  Raising God's Rainbow Makers  (Mahlou) During Shane’s first year, we thought he might be slow. Not in spirit, but in milestones. He didn’t walk. He didn’t talk. And we had what felt like objective reasons to worry. He didn’t walk until he was over two years old—on the very first day he was separated from Noelle, his older sister by one year, at day care. Noelle, paraplegic and waiting for surgery to fit braces, couldn’t walk either. She couldn’t even stand without falling with a thud. But she was fiercely protective of Shane. Every time he tried to pull himself upright, she’d caution him: “No, no, Naney.” And he’d sit back down, scooting on his bottom with hands on ankles, just like her. They looked like little crabs scuttling across the house—synchronized, bonded, beautiful. He didn’t talk, either. His first word came at six months, tumbling out of him as he tumbled down the stairs (a gate failure, a parenting f...

  Precerpt (excerpt from book prior to publication):  Raising God's Rainbow Makers  (Mahlou) Shane almost didn’t see the light of day. After Noelle’s birth and diagnosis of spina bifida, Donnie and I were told we had a 40% chance of future children having major birth defects. That number hung over us like a storm cloud. As my pregnancy with Shane progressed, the legal limit for abortion in Massachusetts loomed closer, and the doctors grew increasingly anxious. If a serious defect was detected, they advised termination. Their logic was clinical: we were already navigating one high-stress child-rearing situation. Why risk another? But the test we needed—the alpha-fetoprotein analysis—was only available in New York at the time. And wouldn’t you know it? The equipment broke down. Temporarily, yes, but long enough to rob us of the chance to know whether Shane had a neural tube defect. We were left to make a life-altering decision without the one piece of information that could...