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.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

No words

I really have no words to describe how I feel.  We were the recipient of an extremely generous, anonymous gift last night.  So generous, in fact, that we no longer have to worry one bit about Christmas for our boys.  We can just concentrate on what Christmas is really about and I am so grateful for that.  We truly felt the love of our Savior through the kind service of our dear neighbors.  I sat and bawled last night on the floor.  Will tried to come up with an excuse as to why his eyes were watering.  haha… You can’t fool me Willy!  He said, “You know when you are so tired that your eyes water?”  Uh huh Will, we know.  It takes a lot to make Will tear up.  We were just overwhelmed with love and gratitude.  I guess I just have two words… THANK YOU! 
Posted by Courtney at 10:18 AM

3 comments:

  1. AnonymousDecember 7, 2010 at 11:57 AM

    :) I LOVE our neighborhood, full of GREAT people.

    Silly boys, why can't they just cry?

    ReplyDelete
  2. BeckDecember 7, 2010 at 11:04 PM

    How wonderful!!! I LOVE it when my friends get hooked up. You guys are amazing and obviously other people love you JUST as much as I do. Thats awesome! Merry Christmas!!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Steven MontgomeryDecember 8, 2010 at 6:57 PM

    That is truly wonderful! I wish you and your family the best Christmas ever!

    ReplyDelete

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