Keeping Busy

October 26, 2008

Keeping Busy

This has been a very busy weekend for our family. Our friends, Michele and Kamarah, launched a fundraiser for our family called "A Hundred for a Home". (You can find out more at www.ahundredforahome.com) Matt and I have been amazed by their love for our kids and their dedication to finding a way to help. We are overwhelmed by the responses from friends, family and strangers. It is difficult to even begin to express our gratitude.

My parents were down this weekend. We finally have things on the walls (thanks Al!) and the kids had a ball with Grandma & Grandpa. We were also able to have breakfast with another foreign service family who have become our friends.

Today we drove out to Loudon County Virginia for a photo shoot for the kids. Some friends of ours arranged to have a photographer capture some outdoor photos of the kids in the fall leaves. I think she was able to get some great shots of everyone. I can't wait to see them!! We had so much fun running around the field in the leaves. Waverly was in her element. I hope to share some of the photos soon.

Comments

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.