im forwarding the below with the hope that it will be as meaningful to others
out there as it was to me.

chag sameach

judy

·
WELCOME TO HOLLAND

by Emily Perl Kingsley. c1987 by Emily Perl Kingsley. 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 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.


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