Raising a Rare Girl-Quality Guarantee

Description

“A remarkable book . . . I found myself thinking that all expectantand new parents should read it.” —Michelle Slater

A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice

In Raising a Rare Girl, Lanier explores how to defy thetyranny of normal and embrace parenthood as aspiritual practice that breaks us open in the best of ways.

Like many women of her generation, when Heather Lanier was expecting herfirst child she did everything by the book in the hope that she could create aSuperBaby, a supremely healthy human destined for a high-achieving future.

But her daughter Fiona challenged all of Lanier’s preconceptions. Bornwith an ultra-rare syndrome known as Wolf-Hirschhorn, Fiona receiveda daunting prognosis: she would experience significant developmentaldelays and might not reach her second birthday. The diagnosis obliteratedLanier’s perfectionist tendencies, along with her most closely held beliefsabout certainty, vulnerability, God, and love.

With tiny bits of mozzarella cheese, a walker rolled to library story time,a talking iPad app, and a whole lot of pop and reggae, mother and daughterspend their days doing whatever it takes to give Fiona nourishment, movement,and language. Loving Fiona opens Lanier up to new understandingsof what it means to be human, what it takes to be a mother, and above all,the aching joy and wonder that come from embracing the unique life of herrare girl.