Splendid Mayhem: Water... Update

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.

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Water... Update

It's 4pm on DAY 2 of the 'pipe' problem. WE NOW HAVE RUNNING WATER! I'm out of the stone age!!!!! Brian called a 'plumber friend' and after the 6th trip to Lowe's, it's fixed! It took, um, 6 guys for me to have water again. 6 of them! Plus, Logen & Parker- you know they were in the middle of it. I'm so excited! I am going to wash sheets, do several loads of towels, clothes, etc and run the dishwasher (I think I have 2 loads to do) And, best of all- We will have a home cooked meal for dinner... no more honey roasted peanuts for me!!!! (That was my dinner last night along with some Taco Bell around midnightish) Kinda difficult to cook w/o water.

Thanks to my Momma & Dave for letting us shower and eat at your house this morning! I think this mornings shower was the best ever! So great to be CLEAN :)
And, of course, thanks to all the guys who helped fix my shower! I'm SO GREATFUL!

1 comment:

Popcorn HouseJanuary 28, 2008 at 12:32 PM
Yah!!! Sound like you had a busy weekend over there. Hope you get a little relaxing in today. Though you are probably doing your leg lifts and dishes. LOL
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