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Daily Mail: Joe, Leah, and “Far from the Tree”


Photo: Participant Media

Photo: Participant Media

Joe Stramondo and his wife, Leah, could have been any other 30-something couple hoping for a child as they sat answering questions in a doctor’s office. They had miscarried once before, when Leah was seven weeks along, and they were desperate for a baby; Leah eagerly, if nervously, answered questions about her health and life as Joe sat by her side. When the subject of her height came up, however, her husband grabbed the opportunity to lighten the mood.

‘Three eleven and a half,’ Leah told the doctor.

‘The half’s real important – make sure you get that on there,’ joked Joe, who is shorter than his wife.

Because both husband and wife, who now live in San Diego, have dwarfism; their fight for a child is chronicled in documentary Far From The Tree … The film follows a number of families in which the children are vastly different from their parents, touching upon everything from autism and homosexuality to Down syndrome and dwarfism.

The story of Leah and Joe is a particularly heartwarming one, and it has a very happy resolution; the film ends with the birth of their daughter, Hazel, who just so happens to not have dwarfism. And things have only gotten more exciting since then; just a few weeks ago, Leah gave birth to a second baby, Silas – who also does not have the same condition as his parents.

(To read the full article, please visit the Daily Mail.)