First Swim of the Summer

August 01, 2009

First Swim of the Summer

We have a beautiful pool at our apartment complex, but we have hardly used it. Matt took Oliver into the water on Friday and Oli loved it. Wavey has never enjoyed being in the pool, which is why we tend to avoid it. But Oliver has showed such interest every time we walk by. He kicked and paddled his hands and spent about ah hour playing with Matt. It was so cute. I think I will have to take him while Wavey is in school the next 2 weeks.

Comments

Anonymous said…

Will has a life jacket for the pool so he can swim independently and he loves it! Enjoy it, Misty

August 1, 2009 at 11:08 AM

Jenkins said…

Too cute!

August 4, 2009 at 3:56 PM

Andrew said…

Shannon and Matt,

I'm so glad you have a pool nearby to jump into and that Oliver loved it so much. Hopefully Matt's schedule will keep allowing him to jump into the pool on these hot days.

This is my first post on your blog but I've been thinking about you more and more in the past month. I just read the last dozen or so posts to see how everyone is doing. You must feel pretty good about all you've accomplished as a family this summer. So much to be proud of.

Praying,
Andrew Pfeiffer
(India '97)

August 5, 2009 at 12:21 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.