We Will Miss You, Erin!!!

August 12, 2011

We Will Miss You, Erin!!!

Waverly had her last day of summer school last week. Even though I wrote about it already, I had to post a photo of Wavey and her 1:1 Erin. Erin worked with Wavey this past school year and summer school. She has been a God sent. Matt and I could see that Wavey loved Erin and was being well taken care of by her. I had the opportunity to pop into the classroom multiple times and I was always happy with what I saw. Erin reinforced PT and OT goals that our therapists thought would be useful. She worked tirelessly to keep Wavey moving and comfortable through her swelling knees and pain phase in the spring. She defended her against an unhelpful staff member. And she went far beyond my expectations in making MPS Awareness Day a school wide event. She is moving out of state next week and we are really going to miss her. I love this photo of them. I love that even with the face painting activity, Erin chose to have a purple ribbon "tatoo" on her arm in honor of Waverly. We have been so fortunate to have her and we are going to miss her terribly. It is difficult to watch someone who loves my child so well leave. Good luck in all you do, Erin!!! We love you and will always remember your love for Wavey. Thank you!!

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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.