Disabilities

An acquaintance posted this on her facebook page!  I remember this well!   I was not sure what was going on I just knew it was not normal.   I loved being in Holland!   I loved the challenge!  I loved the new books, and the workshops learning all I could about my child's disability.   I found that working with these children created a humbleness inside that I would have never felt without knowing about the disability.   I went through a great deal of loss and grief and learned to accept that I would never again be in Italy!  The beauty surrounding us sometimes becomes gray and dark dealing with the issues at hand.  I never dreamed I would be in the places I have been with this child.   I also know that my child taught about love, hate, anger, play but most of all he taught me the precious moment of everyday.   You see not only do I have children with disabilities, I have a number of family members with disabilities.  Life can get interesting when surrounded by it everyday.  The Lord put me in this place because I am strong and I love working and living with them.   That does not mean that some days aren't  hard.   Some days we need to take a break.  Some days we need to cry and even scream.  The day is done and we look back I would not change being in all the different places with all the different people.   My trip to Holland has been awesome!  Each and every stage took me to a different country and I am still experiencing those different countries with the children I serve and now my grandchildren.  I would not trade it for anything!  The Lord has blessed my life with these loving a beautiful children!  They are precious and beautiful because they are children of God.   God does not make junk!   They are all very special.  Have a beautiful weekend!   Enjoy the weather and breathe in the fresh air.   Blessings and peace. 

"Welcome to Holland"
By Emily Perl Kingsley, 1987. All rights reserved.
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 im...agine 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