Splendid Mayhem: Finals Week...

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, December 9, 2008

Finals Week...

My lil' cousin said you can't spell stuDYING without dying. I lol'ed and then stole her sentence.

I have finals Friday, Saturday (at 7:30 AM!), & Monday... Oh, help me!

With everything going on in our lives, finals are coming at a really bad time. I am having an EXTREMELY hard time concentrating on studying. Pray for that too if you can!

Thanks for the continued prayers and kind comments. Love to you all!

5 comments:

cmontagDecember 10, 2008 at 12:16 AM
You are a smart girl. You will be fine, sister!

Carrie M
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KellyDecember 10, 2008 at 8:35 AM
I am sure you will do fine. I don't know you well, but I am pretty sure you are way too hard on yourself.
Also wanted to let you know that we have added Logen onto our (Kenzee & I) nightly prayer list. I will show her his pics tonight so she can see who he is. Everytime I am on a blog she will say who's that Mommy, what's his name, how old is he, where's he at.... too cute.
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ErinDecember 10, 2008 at 11:37 AM
You are smart and will do fine. I will continue to pray for your family and especially Logen. I am going to add you to my blog too:) Let me know if you need anything.
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ErinDecember 12, 2008 at 2:11 PM
Hope they went well! I'm sure you aced them. I like the stuDYING thing haha. Happy Friday!!
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KieraDecember 14, 2008 at 2:11 AM
Thanks for the laugh on stuDYING! I am praying that the finals went well. Take care of yourself!
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