The Fam

January 21, 2009

The Fam

Oliver and Matt watched the entire inauguration together yesterday. Oli was fascinated by it and clapped with the audience. It was adorable...and made Matt so proud.

I snapped this photo of Waverly and I LOVE her smile.

Comments

Anonymous said…

What a beautiful smile! You have such beautiful children.

January 22, 2009 at 2:11 AM

Stephanie from Portland said…

I agree with Penny. You have two of the most incredibly adorable children. How funny, too, that Oliver is so into politics. :)

January 22, 2009 at 8:18 AM

Anonymous said…

good idea to take pictures on such a historic day. wish i would have thought of that!

January 22, 2009 at 11:38 AM

Charity said…

Wavey's smile is beautiful.

January 22, 2009 at 2:47 PM

Anonymous said…

Wow, Oliver is no longer the baby he was when he left London - he has grown!! I thought of you all in DC on the very exciting day for world history!!

January 22, 2009 at 5:22 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.