A good reminder

There is lots going on right now and I'll update when I have more info that I can share. Just need prayers to guide us right now to make some right decisions. (Yes, everyone is healthy - well, except for yucky viral crud - but nothing is catastrophic).

But I did have a great visit with Nana Jane tonight. They have an amazing foster sweetie - he's been with them since the end of May last year (he was born in May). Once again, Papa Ron and Nana Jane have saved a child's life with their love and dedication - just like they did with Gracie.

Through the course of our conversation, the "Welcome to Holland" story came up. I sent it to Nana Jane tonight. It was shared with us just a few weeks after Carson's biliary atresia diagnosis. Little did we know what was yet to come!!! I also remember being told somewhere along the way that kids don't know they have any 'special' needs until we tell them how different they are. Both good reminders on priorities and what really matters.

It doesn't matter if you've never seen this or read it 1,000 times ('cause now you'll read it 1,001). It is still impactful. Which reminds me of another verse I cling to. Might have to find that too as it's a good 're-focusing' thing for me.

P.S. Added on - I flipped my posts around so this one would be read first...then you can read the "To you my sisters" post. And they will flow in such happy, logical order and my trying-to-be-organized self will feel better about that. :)

WELCOME TO HOLLAND
by
Emily Perl Kingsley

c1987 by Emily Perl Kingsley. All rights reserved

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.