I am not on here very often, but I thought I'd share this with you all. Maybe you have seen it.....
WELCOME TO HOLLAND
By Emily Perl Kingsley
I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability to try to help people who have not shared the unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. Its like this:
When you are going to have a baby, its like planning a fabulous vacation trip to Italy. You buy a bunch of guidebooks and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. Michelangelos David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. Its 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 flight attendant comes and says, Welcome to Holland. Holland? you say. What do you mean, Holland? I signed up for Italy. All my life Ive dreamed of going to Italy.
But theres been a change in the flight plans. Theyve landed in Holland, and there you must stay. The important thing is that they havent taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place full of pestilence, famine and disease. Its just a different place.
So you must go out and buy new guidebooks. You must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met. Its just a different place. Its slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy.
But after youve been there awhile and you catch your breath, you look around and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills, Holland has tulips, Holland even has Rembrandts.
But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy, and theyre all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say, Yes, thats where I was supposed to go. Thats what I had planned.
And the pain of that will never, ever, ever go away, because the loss of that dream is a very significant loss. But if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didnt get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things about Holland.
WELCOME TO HOLLAND
By Emily Perl Kingsley
I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability to try to help people who have not shared the unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. Its like this:
When you are going to have a baby, its like planning a fabulous vacation trip to Italy. You buy a bunch of guidebooks and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. Michelangelos David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. Its 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 flight attendant comes and says, Welcome to Holland. Holland? you say. What do you mean, Holland? I signed up for Italy. All my life Ive dreamed of going to Italy.
But theres been a change in the flight plans. Theyve landed in Holland, and there you must stay. The important thing is that they havent taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place full of pestilence, famine and disease. Its just a different place.
So you must go out and buy new guidebooks. You must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met. Its just a different place. Its slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy.
But after youve been there awhile and you catch your breath, you look around and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills, Holland has tulips, Holland even has Rembrandts.
But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy, and theyre all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say, Yes, thats where I was supposed to go. Thats what I had planned.
And the pain of that will never, ever, ever go away, because the loss of that dream is a very significant loss. But if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didnt get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things about Holland.
