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, June 7, 2010

SAN DIEGO, JUNE 2010

We absolutely LOVE going to San Diego.  It might have something to do with where we stay and the fact that it only costs us gas money and grocery money, but we just can't get enough!  I begged Will to leave me and the boys there for another week (or two) but he wouldn't.  So I made him promise to take me back for my birthday in a month.  It was so fun and relaxing, we didn't do anything but swim and go to the Bates Nut Farm (a fav with the boys)...  I had to secretly pay them to let Will go... jk, but seriously we had a blast!  I was so happy my parents were there with us too.  We don't get to see them very often anymore since they spend all their time at the Vineyard nowadays.  It is always fun to be with them.  Hal and Becky (my dad's cousin) were there this time too and they threw a barbeque... always good food and fun.  Can't wait to go back!   













Mitch LOVES it!  He loves it when Will flips him and tosses him in the water!  He even loved the "suiclide"!  The slide is so fast we call it the suiclide. lol













It took some convincing to get Major in the water this time. lol!




BATES NUT FARM













Maj is happy now, but he had a fight with one of the sheep and the sheep made off with his whole bag of corn and Maj got a battle wound on his eye... poor guy.







this is the closest Maj would get after that        



The boys are afraid to feed the Geese so we have to :)      

Mitch is bored!





cute little lambi's  


Mitch and Grandpa




Oh oh, Maj got in trouble... my mom got the biggest kick out of Major just standing there with his nose smushed in the corner.  The "nose in the corner" thing never worked for Maddock but it sure works for Major!












Back to the pool for some more fun in the sun!




                                                                                                                                                    This is definitely my favorite spot:)








Posted by Courtney at 2:32 PM

7 comments:

  1. A Farmer's WifeJune 7, 2010 at 5:33 PM

    Looks like a wonderful trip!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. The MortonsJune 7, 2010 at 10:21 PM

    COURT!!!! I want to go to San Diego, looks like SOOOOOOOO much FUN!

    ReplyDelete
  3. The WalkersJune 10, 2010 at 10:52 AM

    SO fun!!! I love all the pictures and living vicariously through you :) Hehe. I cannot believe how big those little boys are getting! Tell them they need to stop growing RIGHT NOW

    ReplyDelete
  4. BeckJune 10, 2010 at 4:18 PM

    OMG!!!! I want that backyard. NO REALLY...PLEASE!!! :) The pool is AMAZING! What a fun trip. You guys are officially spoiled. LOL! Love ya!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Alyce ArmstrongJune 14, 2010 at 12:04 PM

    I'm so glad I found your blog! I love your home page. Beautifully written, makes me want to cry. Simply Beautiful.

    ReplyDelete
  6. AnonymousJune 15, 2010 at 7:36 PM

    Your post makes me homesick!! I went to Bates Nut Farm all the time as a kid. We always got our pumpkins there :) What a beautiful pool and back yard!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Angie H.June 18, 2010 at 10:11 PM

    So DANG fun!!! Is the pool at your parents house, it looks AMAZING!

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)