A Good Day

A Good Day

I am having a good day. Waverly and Oliver both had therapy this morning and they did an excellent job. Oliver did a wonderful job matching with a shape puzzle. I am so proud, but I can't help feeling sorrow that one day he will be unable to complete a basic puzzle like that. Then I took both kids up to Swiss Cottage to play in the fountain. It is warm here - low 70s - so we needed to cool off in the water. Waverly was incredibly well behaved. I tend to shy away from taking both kids out to play by myself anymore. But Waverly has been so calm lately! She wandered away a few times and I had to chase her down, but for the most part she just stayed right next to me walking around in the water. I feel like I can manage them both at parks again. It helps to have friends willing to lend a hand. (Thanks, Stacy!)

Comments

Mike and Sarah said…

Yay for good days!!! So glad you guys had fun at the park.

July 15, 2008 at 10:32 AM

Jen said…

That is awesome!!!! I hope you continue to have bright days like that!

July 15, 2008 at 12:00 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.