Jennifer Poss Taylor: Words That Heal

 As a 16-year-old, Jennifer Poss Taylor began praying for Ashley. At the time, she just didn’t know how much her little girl would need someone like her.

Taylor learned at that young age that she would never have children naturally because of a health condition that sent her into premature menopause. However, she never gave up her dream of having children. “I always wanted as many children as I could afford to feed,” says the mother of three. “Even at that young age, I knew God would provide either through medical intervention or through adoption.”

Today, Taylor and her husband, David, are the parents of three incredibly fortunate children, two of whom have special needs. Ashley, a blue-eyed blonde like her mom, was born with fetal alcohol syndrome, and her younger brother, Grant, has autism.

Ashley was the first answer to Taylor’s prayer for children, and she was the one who inspired “Forfeiting All Sanity, A Mother’s Story of Raising a Child with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome” (Tate Publishing, $10.99). Taylor poured out her heart in this 130-page book, openly and honestly describing the challenges, joys and frustrations of seeking adoption and then a diagnosis for Ashley.

Despite an educational background and professional experience with special needs children, motherhood seemed to overpower all that she knew. Taylor says she literally pounded the keyboard in frustration as she recorded her emotions first as a journal to hold the feelings and thoughts she would have been embarrassed to express aloud – anger, frustration, guilt. Yet the words reflected back to her gave a sense of empowerment in raising Ashley, something she hopes will resonate with others.

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Jennifer Poss Taylor serves on the Lubbock Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Board. You can learn more by visiting her at www.jenniferposstaylor.com.