Aiden

January 29, 2011

Aiden

We attended a memorial service for our friend Aiden this morning. He was an amazing little boy, with a smile that would melt your heart. Aiden and his sister Hannah were the first kids we ever met who had Sanfilippo. We had the opportunity to get together with their family a few times over the years. They are very special to Matt and I.

Aiden passed away earlier this month. He left the earth much too soon. Please keep his family in your prayers, as they mourn the loss of their son and brother.

Comments

Julie Prater said…

Shannon,

I know that we have never met but I have followed you & your family since I had the pleasure of meeting Hannah & her family. She was in my preschool classroom. I haven't heard from her family in a while, now I know why. I am beside myself! Can you help me get in touch with Hannah & Aiden's family? I will give you my e-mail address jprater8@comcast.net Can you pass that on to them? I know that things are tough right now, but I need to let them know we are thinking about them! Thanks!

February 27, 2011 at 12:11 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.