Yearning for Normal

Book excerpt: This award winning book tells a mother's story of raising her son Michael, who was born missing a submicroscopic piece of chromosome 22. That tiny missing fragment of DNA affected every aspect of his life physically, mentally, and spiritually. Michael's mother describes her adventures and misadventures with the medical system, educational system, and legal system during his growing up years. While Michael and his mother were both yearning for normal through their struggles, they were also learning acceptance of life as it is with all its glory and imperfections. This heartbreaking journey takes readers through hospitals, backyards, schoolrooms, psychiatric wards, court rooms, a burn unit, and the corridors of Susan's heart. This story is not just for parents of children with special needs, but for their friends, neighbors, doctors, nurses, teachers, speech therapists, social workers, police officers, paramedics, firefighters, ministers and whoever else likes a good story. This story is also for those who have watched someone they love suffer, and felt hopeless and powerless, wondering where God was in the midst of the pain.