Twenty years
Twenty years ago began the task of parenting my second child. With a second baby there is the knowledge of having done it before. The necessary equipment is already in the house. The patterns of feeding and sleeping are familiar. There has been time to think about what parenting is, the choices parents make, and the values to be applied to those choices. With a second child it was easy to feel confident in the illusion that I knew the path ahead. So it was that I embarked on the journey of parenting Ryan with my eye clearly on the dual goals of providing a joyful childhood and all the preparation needed for a successful, fulfilled adult life. I didn't know then that raising Ryan would be the hardest and most wrenching journey of my life. I walked blindly and happily though the early years of motherhood with a curious, easy-going baby boy who offered no hints of the struggle to come, at least none that I recognized at the time. As we moved out of the baby stages, I thought a lot