Our Babies

Our Babies
Luke and Claire

"Welcome to Holland"

By Emily Perl Kingsley, 1987. 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.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Mardi Gras Madness and Visitors from Afar

Just in time for Mardi Gras madness, my (Melissa's) Uncle Larry and Aunt Mary from Kansas and Uncle Ron from Colorado came down to visit. It was the first time for Luke to meet his Great-uncle Ron, so he was super duper excited to finally meet him. And, it is always great to see Great Uncle Larry and Great aunt Mary. Needless to say, Luke was spoiled rotten all weekend.  We showed them the finest that Bossier has to offer by taking them to the Krewe of Centaur Mardi Gras parade, which was a great time. Even Larry and Ron jumped up to grab beads. I found this silly hat from one of the vendors to send to Mike for his trip to Ireland this summer (it says "Got Beer?").  Luke appears to be judging me for wearing the silly hat.



Check out all those beads! He didn't even have to flash anyone for them!
 Chilling out with Larry (who is wearing the hat that Ron got for Luke at Firehouse Subs)
 Part of the Malone clan with its newest addition.

AND..........

LUKE HAS TWO TEETH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The first one crept in while we were in the hospital last week, but this second one just jumped in there the other day! Babies with DS typically don't get them until well over 1 year old, so way to be an over-achiever, Luke!!!

1 comment:

  1. KarenMarch 2, 2011 at 11:32 AM

    Great Pictures! Looks like we need to be there for next year's parade! Yeah for Luke and his new tooth. Good job baby boy! By the way, your new clock looks terrific in the picture.

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