Welcome to Holland is an awesome poem....

Welcome To Holland
by
Emily Perl Kingsley


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.

* * *

©1987 by Emily Perl Kingsley. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission of the author.

National DS Awareness Month Oct.3

Loving life and taking it by the horns...The thing I love so much is how much she just wants to enjoy herself and life...

Day 25 of the 30 Day FB Challenge

A picture of your favorite day...Really, how do I do that...I have had so many wonderful days in my life...From getting married, having 3 awesome kids, to having my first join the Army and then getting married...WOW! SO many to choose from...It would be easier to pick the saddest day for me..Okay maybe not..The first time my husband went to sea, it was suppose to be 3 weeks and turned into 3 months... Giving birthday to Bailey was awesome but her almost dying 3 days later not so much...This girl better have more than 9 lives because she has used lots of them up...Dustin coming home from having the crap beat out of him with a metal pole...The good thing about that is they didn't hurt him seriously and Tyler was not hurt...Corbin being stung by a jelly fish was funny yet sad as well..Corbin had the jelly fish wrapped around him, I told him to stay still so I could pee on him, he so was not going to have any of that. So I tried to pee in a cup, now for those of you who know me, know I can pee at the drop of a hat, well not this day...Dustin joining the Army...Dustin going off to Iraq...and the list keeps growing..

Day 24 of the 30 Day FB Challenge

A picture of something you wish you could change...I would change the location of my 2 loved ones that live far away from me..I would bring Dustin and Codie here to Texas and preferably to the Katy area. I would find Douglas a job closer here so he could be at home at night...

Day 23 of the 30 Day FB Challenge

A picture of your favorite book..........
I am not a big book reader, I have not read a not of novels in my days.....
My favorite novel would be "The Old Man and The Sea"....... Not sure why...



My favorite self help book would be....

Day 22 of the 30 Day FB Challenge

A picture of something you wish you were better at
I am seating thinking about this question and lots of things are going through my head. Do I need to be better mother? I personally think I a pretty good mom, most days. I screw up every now and again but I do the best I can...
So what do I wish I was better at? Being a better Christian? (refer to the above)...

I know what I wish I was better at... I wish I was a better listener, less of a talker, a better communicator, and I could so on when this train but I will stop here. Not sure there are pictures for this so I will leave to with words...Sorry...

Day 21 of the 30 Day FB Challenge

A picture of something you wish you could forget. I dont really have a picture of this day but I can tell you about it and then post a picture that will represent the though.
The day my father died and the day my Uncle Stewart passed away. As usual though as a family we had a great time at my Uncles Memorial Service and visiting at his house. The kids played football in the street and the adults sat around talking.