"Welcome to Holland"
By Emily Perl Kingsley, 1987. All rights reserved.
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.
We've gone cordless!!! Just days after ditching the oxygen, Luke decided he would chow down on his bottles if it meant getting rid of the feeding tube. He's still not quite up to par on his nutritional requirements, so no coming home quite yet, but mommy and daddy have a sneaking suspicion that homecoming is in the pretty near future. Everyone keep your fingers and toes crossed that Luke makes it home to celebrate Mother's Day!
Ya! thats so exciting!! I will be praying for you guys all week that he gets to go home!
ReplyDeleteYay for baby Luke! Hoping for a Mother's Day with Mommy!
ReplyDeleteBlessings,
Stephanie and Jonathan
Jancis shared your blog with us and I just wanted to know that we are keeping you in our prayers. What a fighter you have there. He is darling! Hope he makes it home for Mothers Day. That would be a great gift.
ReplyDeleteAwesome, awesome!!! What a fabulous mom's day gift! :)
ReplyDeleteI think his homecoming would be best celebrated with a BBQ, it's never to early to have your first taste of slow cooked meats covered in your favorite sweet Midwest style sauce. Hmmm mothersday sounds like a pork shoulder or maybe a lamb shank. You know uncle Corby is going to introduce him to "super brats" as soon as he is off the milk. (with extra bacon)
ReplyDeleteGreat picture!! Love those cheeks! and thighs, and belly...oh geez, all of him!!! :) Fingers, toes, eyes crossed for discharge before Mom's day...prayers too!!! ;)
ReplyDeleteSuch great news! I love reading about all his progress and can't wait to meet him :O)
ReplyDeleteLove the pic of lil Luke! So excited for your news of getting to bring him home. What a great mother's day present!
ReplyDelete