Splendid Mayhem: We Made It!!!

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.

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

We Made It!!!

We are here, finally!! We left at 11:30 am and got to the hotel & checked in by 5:30 pm. The trip was ok. Logen was TERRIFIC! Parker, was, umm--- an 8 month old who isn't fond of long drives pr being pinned into a car seat. We found a gas station that was next to a hotel. It had a neat swing set and play area with 3 big slides. Of course, we stopped to play for about 10 minutes. Logen was sad to leave there! Logen remembered the hotel & was happy to be here! Our biggest decision thus far-- where to have dinner! We have to eat well b/c it will be Logen's last meal until after the MRI tomorrow.

Please keep us in you prayers for tomorrow & Thursday. When we woke up this morning, I was already chuggin' the pepto. Until tomorrow...... PRAY!

2 comments:

AnonymousJuly 17, 2007 at 6:50 PM
Glad to hear you all arrived safe & sound!!! Hope all goes well tomorrow......you will all be in my thoughts!!
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AnonymousJuly 17, 2007 at 9:13 PM
Glad ya made it there safely!! I seriously kept thinking about ya'll all day today and hope everything goes good this week. If ya need to take your mind off things, just call me-I'm sure I can provide ya with some hilarious in-law drama to pee your pants:) {{{{HUGS}}}}
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