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, November 1, 2010

Halloween Happenings 2010

This is my favorite holiday!  I love all the spookyness of this month when the leaves start changing and falling, scary movies galore on the tele, and all the fun activities!  So fun!  My boys love it too and Will is a good sport, although I tried to get him to dress up as a marshmellow but no dice.  Oh well, maybe next year.  The only bad thing about this year was the weather.  It rained and hailed so bad right at trick or treat time so it was really cold and wet.  It was still so much fun.  Loved it!


CRAZY HAIR DAY AT SCHOOL... he is such a good sport for his crazy mom! lol

PUPMKINLAND
My dear neighbor invited my sister and I to go with her to a playgroup activity at Pumkinland.  It was the cutest place for the little kids to have some Halloween fun! 
Maj goin thru the corn maze
Maj and his buddy, Gannon


COSTUMES AND SCHOOL PARTIES
Here's Mads getting ready to head to school in his costume...
And here's Mitchy boy headed to school in his BUG costume... He is my LOVEBUG:)
Guess who finally started school..... It's CAPTAIN ROO!
Here is my baby Major at school.  I was sad to leave him there but it didn't really hit me until I had dropped Mitch off at school and I didn't have my little Maj in the back talking to me the whole way home.  I bawled all the way back to the house.


TRICK OR TREAT???
my grapes were very sparse by the time I got home... stinkin wind:(  Oh well, it was fun and the boys LOVED it! lol

Posted by Courtney at 10:50 AM

2 comments:

  1. The MortonsNovember 1, 2010 at 11:35 AM

    I love them.. too cute and little mitchy is an adorable bug :D I miss you guys!! Maybe Joey and I will try and come out soon, I would love to see you guys.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The WalkersNovember 4, 2010 at 9:53 PM

    Hahahaha!!! I LOVE the costumes. So cute. Love those sweet boys :)

    ReplyDelete

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