Beautiful Read About Embracing Your Child

[saidie10]

Hello Everyone. A dear friend sent this to me and some of you may have read it before. It is a beautiful analogy of simply loving the child your have. I hope and pray that one day, all our children will be healed and we can all see Italy. However, while I am currently visiting Holland, I will embrace every moment and love every inch of my children's mind, body and beautiful spirits!

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

WELCOME TO HOLLAND - by Emily Kingsland

 

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.

[peglem]

Okay, I've enjoyed about all Holland has to offer and I'm ready to get the h3ll out of here! And the war in Holland is not much fun, either, especially when you're a POW! And I want my money back from the stupid airline w/ the drunk pilot that flew me here! I've had some thrills in Holland, sure, but I want to go home!

[saidie10]

Okay, I've enjoyed about all Holland has to offer and I'm ready to get the h3ll out of here! And the war in Holland is not much fun, either, especially when you're a POW! And I want my money back from the stupid airline w/ the drunk pilot that flew me here! I've had some thrills in Holland, sure, but I want to go home!

 

LMAO!!!! You got that right! I am ready to board the return flight home...ready and waiting for my flight to be called...

[Johnsmom]

okay heres mine but I didnt make it up - some other frustrated parent did. Here you go:

 

"I was never sure why this poem bothered me so much. Its a beautiful story written by a parent who has a child with Down Syndrome. The I realized why I wasn't comforted by this poem. When you have a child with emotional problems, (insert PANDAS here) life is always "up in the air " circling the airport. Rarely can one enjoy the very lovely things about Holland. "The plane never really lands!"

 

 

 

 

 

 

Okay, I've enjoyed about all Holland has to offer and I'm ready to get the h3ll out of here! And the war in Holland is not much fun, either, especially when you're a POW! And I want my money back from the stupid airline w/ the drunk pilot that flew me here! I've had some thrills in Holland, sure, but I want to go home!

 

LMAO!!!! You got that right! I am ready to board the return flight home...ready and waiting for my flight to be called...

[mama2alex]

Thanks for posting this Saidie10. It is a beautiful sentiment. I have to say, as hard as it's been, I've met some wonderful and amazingly supportive friends in Holland, and discovered just how much my existing friends care about me and my family.

[kimballot]

This is a beautiful poem that I have often thought about. It does seem so fitting for families of children with Down Syndrome or other recognizable disabilities.

 

I can also understand the folks who say that having a child with a hidden disability is not Holland.

 

I think PANDAS is not yet Holland because we do not have an identifiable network of people, other than this forum. We are neither in Italy nor Holland. We are wandering through a foreign land looking for others who speak our language. Our foreign land is cold and stormy through exacerbations. We all dream of the time when the sun will come out and the tulips will grow and the windmills will work. That will be when PANDAS is a clearly defined disorder with medical professionals to diagnose it and treat it and take our insurance in every city in the US. That will be our New Holland.

 

We have to remember that families of children with Down Syndrome or Cerebral Palsy have not always had Holland either. They had institutions for their kids and no one to help. The families demanded something better and we got laws to educate and include their children and medical professionals to help.

 

We need to do the same. When we find enough of us, we will build a New Holland for Pandas. I know I will never go to Italy, but I hope I can see New Holland before I die.

[Stephanie2]

I have read that before and I have thought about it at times that I try to accept my life for what it is right now.

 

With that said, in terms of pandas I think the "middle east" is more fitting than holland! My life feels like an on-going war that just won't end!

 

Hello Everyone. A dear friend sent this to me and some of you may have read it before. It is a beautiful analogy of simply loving the child your have. I hope and pray that one day, all our children will be healed and we can all see Italy. However, while I am currently visiting Holland, I will embrace every moment and love every inch of my children's mind, body and beautiful spirits!

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

WELCOME TO HOLLAND - by Emily Kingsland

 

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.

[tired mom]

I personally think this is a beautiful read. We all love are children no matter what. We deal with the cards that have been dealt. The way I feel is ...I was in Italy and enjoying it very much and then out of nowhere I ended up in Holland. I can't enjoy it much because I so long to go back to Italy.........

[Phasmid]

OMG, peglem, this almost made me spit beer out my nose! So funny.... thanks.

[Phasmid]

Thanks for posting this Saidie. I couldn't bring myself to read it until tonight, cuz i knew it would be emotional. It is beautiful. And it does speak to the heart; that we need to love unconditionally, as we are loved by Jesus himself with all our horrible imperfections. I have often not loved (in action) my son, for things he cannot help. Therein lies a conflict that I will have in my soul indefinitely.