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, May 17, 2011

Dallas


Last week I was all geared up for my upcoming trip to our Houston facility for work. Although I do enjoy travelling for work, I was more concerned about the exciting shopping opportunities in Houston during my free time.  Alas, they were not ready to proceed with our planned project, so the trip got delayed. No big deal for work, but what to do about my shopping?!?!?

Solution:  Dallas!

For once, we had nothing planned for the weekend, and it was simply beautiful outside.  Luckily, the neighbors were willing to watch the four-legged babies, so off we went for a weekend of shopping, eating, and baseball in Dallas.  Luke, as always, was a fabulous little traveler.  We shopped until we dropped, stuffed our faces with delicious Mexican food for dinner and La Madeline for brunch,  and went to Luke's first MLB game (Rangers v. Angels)! As you can see from the picture, it was a bit too much excitement to handle, but it was the perfect way to spend the weekend together.

2 comments:

  1. KarenMay 18, 2011 at 12:36 PM

    Oh, I want to hold that little guy so much! He looks so peaceful in your arms. By the way, how are his ears doing. Is righty cleared up now?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ronnie and SuziMay 18, 2011 at 1:36 PM

    Dallas...what about Montego Bay?! LOL! I'm still waiting on my pretend vacation there through your pictures ;) Oh and Le Madeleine is one of our FAVORITE places...I'm completely jealous now!

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