Together With You (32 page)
D
ear Reader,
Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) is a complicated subject. I'm not an expert in any way, but an encounter with a boy in our Cub Scout troop put a face on it for me. I'm going to call him Tommy (not his real name) and share a few stories with you.
This was back in 1997, and at the time I'd never heard of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. I just knew that among the eight boys in our troop, Tommy stood out. With his small head, narrow eyes, and flattened features, including no dent over his upper lip, he was different from the other kids.
He also behaved in odd ways. While the other boys paid attention (at least some of the time), Tommy didn't even try to focus. When we carved fish out of bars of Ivory soap, he lacked even the most basic coordination. Sometimes he became frustrated, but mostly he retreated into his own world.
I knew Tommy was in Special Ed and didn't think too much about why until a particular conversation with his mom. We were talking about kids and braces when she told me Tommy would
never get his permanent teeth. He just didn't have them. I'd never heard of anything like that, and though I wondered why, it seemed rude to ask. My thoughts were simply, “That poor kid.”
Flash forward several years.
I'm at the computer researching birth defects for a different book, and Tommy's face pops on to the screen. It wasn't actually Tommy, but the face staring at me from a Fetal Alcohol Web site had the same unique features that characterized Tommy. His condition now had a nameâFetal Alcohol Syndrome, or FAS.
That was the moment when the idea for Penny was conceived. I read a lot of books, including
The Broken Cord
by Michael Dorris, perhaps the first and most well known of the FAS books. There are a lot of blogs out there, but the one that stood out for me was Jeff Noble's FASD Forever (http://fasdforever.com). Jeff's work is inspiring, honest, and full of warmth and humor. On the personal side, I listened to stories from friends with related experiences. Penny's mermaid infatuation was confirmed by one of those conversations, as well as Carly using a tent to give her a safe place.
As the words “spectrum disorder” imply, there's a lot of variation in the effects of fetal alcohol. The amount of alcohol consumed and the gestational time of exposure both make big differences. There's an alphabet soup of acronyms and abbreviations, and research continues to provide new information.
The highest level on the spectrum is full-blown Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, which is where I suspect Tommy fit. The lowest level is Fetal Alcohol Effects. That's where I placed Penny for the sake of a story that's primarily a romance.
I hope you enjoyed getting to know this little girl. I like to think that when Penny reaches adulthood, she'll follow in the steps of Emily Travis, Miss Southern Illinois 2012. Born with alcohol in her system and addicted to drugs used by her mother, Emily is a strong advocate for FASD prevention.
There are two things I hope readers take away from the FASD
aspect of
Together With You.
The first is that FASD is 100 percent preventable. If you're pregnant, don't drink. If you think you might become pregnant, don't drink. No child should sustain what's essentially a traumatic brain injury in its mother's womb.
The second takeaway is that no one i
s perfect. No matter where we fall on the spectrum of humanity, we all need forgiveness, love, and the grace of our heavenly Father.
With love,
Victoria Bylin
Victoria Bylin
is a romance writer known for her realistic and relatable characters. Her books have finaled in multiple contests, including the Carol Awards, the RITAs, and
RT Magazine's
Reviewers' Choice Award. A native of California, she and her husband now make their home in Lexington, Kentucky, where their family and their crazy Jack Russell terrier keep them on the go. Learn more at her website:
www.victoriabylin.com
.
Until I Found You
Together With You
