Welcome to Holland by Emily Perl Kingsley. c1987 by Emily Perl Kingsley. All rights reserved.

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability- to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this...

When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip- to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."

"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."

But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.

The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.

So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.

It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills... and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say, "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."

And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very, very significant loss.

But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things... about Holland.

Monday, February 15, 2010

Funny Story

Will and I have not had much sleep lately and last night was the worst night we've had in the last week.  Mitch has been sleeping in our bed with us, or rather NOT sleeping, because we think he is going to have a seizure any day now, so needless to say we are quite sleep deprived.  In an effort to help Mitch fall asleep last night I suggest to Will that he go and get some Mylanta for Mitch.  The first funny thing is that Will came back with the Mylanta and a SPOON!  LOL!  I started laughing so hard... I was crying.  So I tell him to go and get a teaspoon size syringe and fill it up with the Mylanta.  I normally wouldn't have to explain this to Will, but as I said, we were severely lacking in the sleep department.  So he comes back with the syringe and Mitch fell to sleep for about 2 hours, YEAH!  It worked!  The second funny thing is that this morning I wake up and go into the kitchen and I see a little splatter of Mylanta all around my sink and on the countertop and then I start following it upwards to my recipe book holder and then from there I follow it up to the wall!  It is all over the wall behind the sink all the way up to the ceiling!  LOL!  The funniest thing is that Will has no clue as to what happened with the Mylanta!  He has no memory of it!  I am laughing so hard right now that I am crying again!  It is literally splattered everywhere!  WHAT A NIGHT! 
I love, love, love this man and his funny little quirks!  He makes me laugh all the time and I love it!  You are my funny Valentine Willy!
Posted by Courtney at 1:43 PM

1 comment:

  1. BeckFebruary 15, 2010 at 4:35 PM

    Thats awesome! You guys are such a GREAT couple. Did you know you were my first "married couple" friends??? Well you were. :)

    ReplyDelete

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