New Friends

February 09, 2009

New Friends

I am currently listening to Oliver play with his "Handy Manny" toolset. It is his favorite toy at the moment. There are 7 tools that fit into a tool box and when he pushes the button the (very loud) them song plays. It only comes out when Waverly is at school, because she loves to chew on the pieces.

We had a wonderful weekend. The weather was perfect - 60s and sunny. We went back to our favorite play park on Saturday. We met another foreign service family and their 3 kids. It was nice to be around friends and their children are adorable. Last night, I had the opportunity to meet with 2 local moms who each have a little boy with special needs. What a treat to go out for dinner with friends!! The one mom graduated a year behind me in college and we knew each other a little bit. She lives in northern VA and we have been in touch with one another since we moved into the area. The other mom is one of her friends. It was wonderful to feel understood so genuinely by someone else. The 3 hours passed quickly and I feel as if I have 2 wonderful new friends in my life. We hope to get together once a month.

Comments

Christine said…

Fantastic news about the two local friends! I think having that connection will be such a blessing now and in the days to come.

That header is soooo gorgeous!

February 9, 2009 at 4:59 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.