Re: Welcome to Holland here it is

[Guest guest]

" Welcome to Holland "

  Pearl 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 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 guidebooks

  and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum,

  the Michelangelo , 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 guidebooks. 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, 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. "

  The pain of that will never, ever, ever go away, because

  the loss of the dream is a 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.

  -

       

[Guest guest]

Thanks so much!!!

F.

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