Splendid Mayhem: Anheuser-Bush Tour

Welcome To Holland

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.

Thursday, July 19, 2007

Anheuser-Bush Tour

We finally made it to Anheuser Bush today after Logen's appt. We had planned on being there most of the afternoon since out previous appt lasted about 4 or 5 hours. But, we got out after only an hour and had free time!! So, went went to tour the brewery! It was pretty neat and even the boys had fun! It was a 7 block walk all together. And, the free beer at the end was a minor perk! LOL

(On "Cars" when Lightning McQueen is teased for his lights being 'stickers' I laughed- I didn't know REAL race cars had stickers as headlights! Adam got onto me for touching the race car... I had to touch to believe! LOL)

3 comments:

AnonymousJuly 20, 2007 at 1:03 PM
k well he can make fun of me too-so the lights don't actually work? I feel like a moron-I worked the pits for Matt Kenseth when he still raced dirt tracks in WI-he had REAL lights!!!! Guess in the "real" races it would just weigh it down.
ReplyDelete
Replies
DawnJuly 20, 2007 at 9:15 PM
Hi Jessica - Great blog! I will keep this bookmarked and keep my eyes on you guys better now! Sounds like a very interesting trip happening, good luck with bugging the heck out of the CP clinic. It needs to be done though. ;) Super pictures, the boys have grown so much!

Take Care,
Dawn ~ Tommy & Austin
ReplyDelete
Replies
Andrea "The H family"July 29, 2007 at 8:46 PM
Wow! You inspire me girl. You keep super busy with these kiddo's and your doing some really cool stuff. LOVING YOUR DUO STROLLER!
ReplyDelete
Replies