Twenty-two years ago on October 8, 1993 we brought into the world a 7 pound 13 ounce baby boy we named Christopher William Meeker. We both have been blind all our lives but we had never been parents. As most parents are, we were scared to death of being responsible for this precious little one who was dependent on us for his every need.

As blind parents, we used many alternative techniques. But the one tried and true technique we used on a daily basis was reading and writing Braille.

Even before Christopher was born, we spent much time either Brailling children's books or ordering books from places such as National Braille Press, Seedlings, and Volunteer Services for the Visually Handicapped, now Audio & Braille Literacy Enhancement (ABLE), the agency where I am now the Executive Director. We read Christopher books in Braille almost every night. By the time he was fifteen months old, he was filling in words from Goodnight Moon. When Christopher was eighteen months old, Bill became very ill and was taken to the hospital in an ambulance. Christopher ran to get his Pat the Bunny book and put it in my lap to read. It's a book that I Brailled for him before his birth; it also has tactile graphics. Christopher kept going to the page where daddy's rough face is shown, and he would put my hand on that spot.

Well, his dad came home from the hospital and continued to share in the reading of the many Braille books in our house. We were able to get him, Christopher that is, to go to sleep with the lights off by reading Braille books in the dark--a feat not easily accomplished using ink-print books.

When Christopher was two, we began to play cards and dice with him using braille adapted games. Later we moved on to Monopoly and Candy Land. He learned about winning, losing, and the rules of the game. When Christopher was four years old, he learned (to his delight) that he could sometimes win more easily by disregarding the rules of the game. That's when we began teaching him that the end does not justify the means.

As Christopher entered Kindergarten, we became a part of his classroom by reading out loud to him and his peers and answering all kinds of questions about what it is like to be blind. Children are refreshing; they ask the most amazing, honest, and direct questions. We continued going into his classroom until middle school, when Christopher said enough of that; not because we're blind, but because we're his parents.

Braille has been essential throughout our parenting for labeling medicines, labeling homework sheets, taking notes on his assignments and using Braille to keep up with all the material that we received because of the sports and recreational activities Christopher was involved in.

Using Braille in our parenting has served many practical purposes, helped us deal with the many responsibilities of parenting and has given us so much joy and pleasure! Today, Christopher is an independent, confident young man living in Utah and working for the Utah Department of Natural Resources as a wildland fire fighter. We are so very proud of him. We are here to say that parenting by the dots has been a great success. We love parenting by the dots!