Sunday, November 23, 2008

Welcome to Holland

I had a parent of a child with disabilities tell me about this poem a few months ago. It is an amazing poem that reminds me and others of how blessed we are. It also helps me to remember that I am not in control and can not plan every detail of my life...even if I would like too. God has a better plan and he choose me and Kenny to be the parents of a very beautiful and precious angel. We consider ourselves lucky and among the elite chosen ones to be blessed with our little angel. Even though we did not have the opportunity to raise our little girl, we can still very much so relate to this poem.

"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."

So as you have read, Holland is just as wonderful as Italy. Just because our trip was different, it doesn't make it wrong. We were blessed to have had the opportunity to take a trip to Holland. And now as the arrival date approaches quickly for Asher, we do still dream of taking the trip to Italy...but we will NEVER forget the amazing journey we took to Holland and cannot wait to see our little Rembrandt when we get to Heaven.

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