Busy Week

December 23, 2010

Busy Week

It has been a busy week preparing for the holidays. I have tried to take advantage of the short time the kids are both in school to finish up last minute errands and shopping. I think everything is wrapped and under the tree, ready for Christmas morning.

On Tuesday, I went to the kids' school for Waverly's holiday party. I coordinated everything and I think it turned out fairly well. The kids decorated cookies, colored wooden ornaments, made Chex Mix and stamped cards. It was a lot of fun. I enjoyed watching Waverly interact with her peers. I was also able to get to know Waverly's 1:1 a little better. She is incredible! I am so thankful that she is working with Waverly. She actually told me the cutest story. A little boy in the 1st grade class that Wavey joins for music, PE, library, etc really seems taken with Waverly. He came over to greet her and told Erin (the 1:1) that he loved Waverly. Then he told her that Wavey is beautiful. He may be my new favorite kid!

We just returned from a wonderful evening. We went to Chipotle for burritos and then off to a local state park that has a Christmas light display. We stopped for cocoa along the way. The kids actually enjoyed the lights and kept looking out the windows - especially at the ones that moved. It has become a tradition for us.

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.