Perspectives from Holland: One Month

"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.

Thursday, April 12, 2012

One Month

It has been a busy 1st month for Claire! Most of the time she just lounges around in her swing. She was working on a new fashion look for this picture....

But, sometimes she likes to spice things up. Last Saturday it was BEAUTIFUL, so she upgraded from her swing to the boat and LOVED it! (thank goodness)

She enjoyed sleeping on the boat just like Luke did when he was a tiny baby....

Oh wait....he still enjoys sleeping on the boat!

Then it was time for Easter!!! Claire was busy getting ready, so Luke dug into his Easter basket. Since it was a special day, he even got to get a few of his birthday presents that you all have been sending

Here we are together in our first nice family picture. Our friends, David and Angela had us and the Mahaffey's over for brunch. The food and company were excellent, but we sure were worn out! Everyone took a nice long nap that afternoon.

Even though it was a few days later, Luke finally got to eating the ears off his chocolate Easter bunny. DELICIOUS!!! He is saving the feet for another day.

Luke didn't want Claire to feel left out from not getting to eat a chocolate bunny, so he thought he'd help feed her dinner.

Judging by this face, he probably just did something mean to his sister. Notice the bottle is missing....mommy should have been paying closer attention instead of helping daddy get a good picture.