School Photo

School Photo

When Waverly got home from school yesterday, she had an envelope containing her spring school photos. (I didn't even know they took both fall and spring photos.) When I first saw her picture I wanted to cry, but within a few seconds I had a huge smile on my face, with tears in my eyes. This photo so totally captures my sweet little girl. I LOVE it and (of course) bought every copy they sent home.

We were supposed to go to South Carolina for the weekend. My friend Leslie is having a 5k run/walk in honor of her daughter Izzy. Izzy has Sanfilippo Syndrome and they started a fundraiser to assist other MPS families. Wavey has had a cold all week and last night Oliver started with a fever. We are so disappointed that we aren't able to attend and be with other MPS families.

Comments

Valerie Nelson said…

I LOVE the picture, too! Post more, if you can. :)

May 2, 2009 at 5:00 PM

Anonymous said…

She is so precious. Her picture is awesome. Eileen from Michigan

May 4, 2009 at 12:02 PM

Kim said…

It is beautiful. :) I love love LOVE her pink glasses.

May 10, 2009 at 9:27 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.