Raising a Rare Girl

Like many women of her generation, writer Heather Lanier did everything by the book when she was expecting her first child. She ate organic foods, recited affirmations and drew up a birth plan for an unmedicated labour in the hopes that she could create a Super.

Baby, an ultra-healthy human destined for a high-achieving future. But her daughter Fiona challenged all of Lanier's preconceptions. Born with an ultra-rare syndrome known as Wolf-Hirschhorn, Fiona received a daunting prognosis: she would experience significant developmental delays and might not reach her second birthday. Not only had Lanier failed to produce a Super.

Baby, she now fiercely loved a child that the world would sometimes reject. The diagnosis obliterated Lanier's perfectionist tendencies, along with her most closely held beliefs about certainty, vulnerability and love.