Book excerpt: Jake is celebrating his tenth birthday. That’s a remarkable feat, because at birth he was given only three years to live. Miriam Edelson is his mother, a dedicated fighter for Jake and families in similar situations. Edelson poses some tough questions: How do parents cope with a child who has special needs? Are we failing, as a society, to care for children with disabilities? Whatever happened to the federal government’s promise of a “Children’s Agenda”? My Journey with Jake works on two levels. It’s a poignant memoir by a devoted mother, and a hard-hitting, well-researched look at health care for Canada’s children.