Perspectives from Holland: Happy 2nd Birthday

"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, April 17, 2012

Happy 2nd Birthday

How is my little baby two years old already?!?! Grandma Malone came to visit to help Luke celebrate his birthday, and he couldn't wait to walk up and give her a giant hug! Grandma was so excited to see him walk and to meet baby Claire for the first time.

Luke couldn't wait to start playing with Grandma. They spent the whole weekend playing games and spending time outside on the swingset.

There must be something about Grandmas because Grandma Malone insisted Claire get a bath to get ready for Luke's party. I asked if she had worked up a sweat sleeping, but just like with Grandma Godinez, Claire was getting a bath!

Luke managed to entertain himself for a bit with his first birthday gift - a racecar set!!

Then, everyone showed up for his party. There were some storms moving into town, but luckily we got a little play time before the bad weather hit.

We moved the party into the garage so everyone could eat without their food blowing away. Here are Luke and Isaac eating their dinner together like such big boys.