Splendid Mayhem: Hello!

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.

Monday, March 24, 2008

Hello!

Hope you all had a WONDERFUL Easter! And, were able to celebrate the true meaning of the holiday. We spent the weekend with family and great friends. We left after Adam got off work Friday night. We had dinner with Daddy & Liz- and my sisters, and big sis's family and some extended family. Saturday, we spent a part of the day sitting at Bridgett and Brians (Bridgett is one of my bestest friends ever. They had to work, so being the nice friend I am- I did some of their laundry and dishes. :) We went to Dad's that evening and spent time with more family. The boys had a ball! Both boys have really taken to their Aunt Abbey! Logen followed her everywhere! We went to church Sunday (both boys stayed in the nursery! I was impressed!) and then back to Dad's to take pics and visit. I will overload with pictures in a bit. Liz and Tiff both got some great ones, and will be sending me a disk when they can. I will post what I have in a bit. We drove on to my Grandma June and Papa Dave's for lunch. The Easter Bunny visited the boys at 3 different places! We have a great bunny in our family!!! We got home around 9pm last night. They boys were very sleepy.

Have a great day!