Memory Made

September 24, 2011

Memory Made

I spent some time volunteering in Waverly's classroom yesterday, which did my spirit good. They are learning about autumn, so we made paper mache apples. They will paint them on Monday. I had such a great time helping the kids apply strips of newsprint to balloons. Most of them were not too excited about getting their hands messy, including Waverly. I think she thought it tasted good though, because she had a lot of it around her mouth (thankfully it is simply flour, water and salt). After we made the apples, I also read a story to the class. It was so much fun!!

It was a great reminder to enjoy the moment. Memory made.

Comments

Anonymous said…

Shannon - thinking and praying for you friend! Thankful for your memory made, and praying for many more. How you bear the emotions of this is beyond me, and I hope and pray that as you continue to process each day with your children, that God gives you the grace, the perspective and the wisdom to handle it as best as you can!!!

Brittany

September 25, 2011 at 9:43 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.