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.
How cute is that, I'm sure he loves it! It looks like San Diego was a blast, I'm so jealous of your parent's house! Its so fun that you get to go stay there, I would never get out of the pool!
ReplyDeleteThis is WONDERFUL!!! YAY for Mitch! You are awesome, Court!
ReplyDeleteAhhh those are great pictures!!! Mitch is one cute boy :)
ReplyDeleteI am so excited to see you have a blog -- I will officially be stalking you now!
Christina Tervort
That is so FREAKIN cool! Love it!
ReplyDeleteThis post makes me cry. The Beauty and kindness of the human race is amazing. Thanks for sharing. Love It!
ReplyDeleteThat is awesome! He is such a cute little guy. So happy he gets to enjoy fun things like this. You are a great mom!
ReplyDeleteThat is WONDERFUL that he gets to enjoy sports just like his little bro! I bet he just LOVES it!!!
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