Merry Christmas!

December 27, 2010

Merry Christmas!

Waverly and Oliver had a wonderful time opening Christmas gifts. Wavey really liked her new stuffed Barney. It sings the "I Love You" song. Oliver got a bouncing Tigger toy that was a huge hit. The biggest excitement came when the kids opened a gift bag filled with jumbo chewy necklaces.

Comments

Amanda said…

The outfit that Waverly is wearing is cute! Is that a nightie? Cute stuff! And the picture with Oliver looking at Tigger is just adorable!

December 27, 2010 at 2:52 PM

Anonymous said…

Today my daughter was denied surgery by CIGNA because it was deemed experimental. We were negotiating down to the wire, since the first clue we would be denied was two hours prior to surgery. My daughter was in the pre op area, gowned. We are now home, and exhausted and tearful. My daughter has been in pain for a year due to a misdiagnosis. Why do I share this? I don't know, other than to say the inability to make it better when you are mother is a cruel turn of events.

December 30, 2010 at 5:39 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.