A memoir about adopting and raising a son with Down Syndrome that celebrates the quirkiness of life.

While most people meet their child for the first time in a delivery room, some parents have to  meet their child

Not Always Happy, is a humorous and sharp chronicle about adopting and raising a son with Down Syndrome from the Maine foster care system.  The author quickly learns that life is best lived by expecting the unplanned when she makes the decision to become a parent in her late forties. 

Kari Wagner-Peck, MSW is a writer, blogger, and freelance development consultant while she homeschools her son.  She has been a professional advocate for homeless, incarcerated, and immigrant individuals and has worked as a documentary videographer, teaching videography at the college level.  He writing has been featured in the Huffington Post, The Good Men Project, the New York Times’ “Motherlode” blog, the Sydney Morning Herald, BLOOM, The Mighty, LOVE THAT MAX, Yahoo Parenting, \Why did you write Not Always Happy?

I wrote this book to smash the stereotypes of people with Down Syndrome - that they are simple and dull and always happy.  By sharing funny and brutal true-life experiences of my now ten-year-old son, readers will understand that he is a complex full participant in life who is not in need of changing

It chronicles one typical and not-so-typical family’s journey, from adopting a child with Down Syndrome, through the usual strains of domestic joy and commotion, to dealing with the unexpected challenges of an education system that deems your child as less than other children and turning to homeschooling.