Expecting Adam by Martha Beck

The book was a memoir. I was moved and tickled to tears by it, all at the same time. I put the book on hold for two years. Can you believe it? Bought the book in 2008 and not until last month that I have the guts to go beyond its plain cover and serious subject to tackle the book.
I was already hooked at page 2.
The book is full of clever, witty and sarcastic humors, everyday prejudice and deep emotional ride of a mother-to-be whom also a Harvard scholar. And she's expecting a Down Syndrome baby.

p7 'They decided to allow their baby to be born. What they didnt realize is that they themselves were the ones who would be 'born', infants in a new world where magic is common place, Harvard professors are the slow learners and retarded babies are the master teachers'.

Somehow Martha's (author) 'special-need' child Adam has magic (to simply put it) and miracles surrounded him even before he was born. With bizarre happenings occurred to his parents when the author was expecting him.

I laughed at this, p16 'the more upset John (husband) is, the happier he acts. It's a Harvard thing'. And this p20 'the moment Mr. Sperm and Ms. Egg first encountered each other in my fallopian tubes-before they even had time to make any informed decision about going steady, let alone forming a biological unit- I could sense them conspiring to make my life a hell on earth'.
Maybe I shouldn't have laughed ...

I cried when 2 'angels' appeared out of nowhere to help Martha. Angels read: 2 beautiful and intelligent women - 1 pregnant and the other not. My intermittent cry lasted almost 10 minutes or so .. and I was not even pregnant.

p75 'Adam brought with him a sweetness that surpasses anything I ever felt before he was conceived ... a quality of attention to ordinary life that is so loving and intimate - it's almost worship'.

On p.76, the author wrote about a friend in a lab experimenting with rats - for reason unknown to author but she suspects that her friend was making soup and labelled her friend as 'my rat molesting friend'. That had me laughed out loud (my lunatic personality suddenly escaped me).

When the author wrote about magical/out of this world experiences, perhaps it was just pure, innocent coincidences and the book also spoke a lot about the author's and hubby experiences in Singapore. And I was also in Singapore when I read those pages, what a coincidence.

p317 'vast majority of normal people spend our lives trashing our treasures and treasuring our trash'. How true.

So as you can see, I thoroughly enjoyed the book. However her once too many bizarre occurences were kinda hard to swallow (well, perhaps that's the reason she wrote it down) . I was also not too keen on her labelling/writing Down Syndrome children as 'retarded'. I winced everytime I read that. I prefer special needs children. But other than that I like her writing and love the story. Deeply moved and satisfied.