Bloom

I've mentioned Kelle Hampton's Enjoying the Small Things here lots of times before. I was visiting Gypsy when I noticed that she has a copy of Kelle's new book, Bloom, which Gypsy is saving for after she's finished with school (hopefully soon!). Knowing that I, too, love Kelle Hampton, she insisted that I enjoy her brand new book for beach reading. What a good friend!--to let someone else read your book first!

Kelle Hampton's writing is lively and delightful and happy. It's also vulnerable and open. Bloom is the story of the birth of her second daughter, Nella, and the discovery of Nella's Down Syndrome. Hampton is honest about her struggle with the discovery, but her loving embrace of the world, and especially of her daughters, triumphs. She shares her process of loving her daughter, Nella: what's wonderful is that when it comes to love, Down Syndrome isn't different from anything else--you just love the person and deal with everything else as it comes. What an excellent model for life.

I've been reading Kelle's blog for years now, but there are many things that she doesn't mention too much on the blog, and about which I was curious--Kelle's parents, her husband, her step-sons, her upbringing. While the focus of Bloom is Nella, Kelle fills in the gaps with these other details. It's embarrassing to say, but I'm happy to know more about her life (secretly, I feel like we're friends, since I've been reading about every detail of her and her daughter's lives for a while). Okay, okay, I admit it: I'm just a stalker and the internet makes it all too easily. What would I have done if I had been born twenty years earlier?