Thank you all you wonderful people who knew just what I wanted and sent
it. You are blessed. For those that have not read the story I will
reprint it. Love, Toby
WELCOME TO HOLLAND
BY EMILY PEARL 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 are going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous
vacation
trip- to Italy. You buy a bunch of guidebooks 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 flight attendant comes 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
guidebooks. 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 a while and you catch your
breath,
you look around and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills,
Holland
has tulips, Holland even has Rembrandts.

"But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy, and they're
all
bragging about the 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 go away,
because
the loss of that dream is a 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."



-- 
Toby Gish RN IBCLC 
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