The end of a long day....

October 18, 2007

The end of a long day....

I woke up this morning to news that my Mom was in the hospital. She has since been released and thankfully it was nothing too serious. It reminded me just how far away from home I am. We also finally received household items from our pack-out in Ohio (almost 1.5 years ago). It feels a bit like Christmas, opening boxes to see things you haven't seen in so long or forgot about entirely. Tomorrow, Waverly goes to the hospital for her MRI. Please say a prayer that all goes well. I am nervous about my little girl being sedated (again), but we are hopeful that once this is done we will have a more accurate picture of Waverly's developmental prognosis. I am off to unpack more boxes....

Comments

Anonymous said…

Girl, I am praying, have been praying, and will continue to pray! So glad Mom is okay. And guess what! We will be learning some sign language as well! My first thought was not "wow this will help my son" but "wow! i can talk to wavey better!"

October 18, 2007 at 9:34 PM

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 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.