Of Course

October 02, 2009

Of Course

When Oliver got off the bus this afternoon he seemed incredibly tired. We decided to put him right down for his nap. I noticed that he seemed restless in his sleep, but when I went in to check on him he seemed okay. He wasn't. I went into his room, while talking on the phone with a friend and fellow MPS mom, and realized he threw up everywhere. Now I do not typically deal with vomit. That is Matt's area of expertise. Unfortunately, I was on my own. And of course this happened 20 minutes before I had to get Waverly off of the bus and rush over to Children's to pick up her new hearing aid. We survived the ordeal and thankfully he has been vomit free for the rest of the night. I am hoping, praying, crossing my fingers and toes, that it was just a reaction to something he ate and not a stomach bug. We are off to Disney World this weekend and I would hate to delay our departure or risk traveling with a sick little boy.

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.