any one raising children with disability

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This was wrote by a lady with a child with a disability and given to us in our special needs class. I just love it, and I want to wish every one a Merry Christmas and to know the beauty that surrounds you. Donna 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 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 things 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 you breath, you look around, and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills. Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandt. 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 go away, because the loss of that dream is 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. By P. Kingsley I know we all love our children no matter what, but sometimes when things are more difficult like with my husbands mental illness, it can tend to bring us down, so if we can find the beauty of life where ever we are we will find happiness. Merry Christmas. Donna Donna JordonDSJordon@...

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