Life in Holland: Off The Beaten Path

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Off The Beaten Path

I guess as I post this next sentence I am asking for it... Things have been fairly uneventful around here the past week or so. We have had the normal runny noses, poison ivy, and pink eye but nothing even requiring a Dr. visit. The poison ivy was the worst part and I feel very sorry for Carly because some of hers is on her face and 2 of the little 4 year old boys in her class were calling her Carly Krueger. I can't believe 4 year olds even know about Freddy Kreuger. That is nuts. I let her stay home from school after that because I didn't think it was necessary to subject her to that. I know that kids will be kids but come on, it's pre-K. My poison ivy on the other hand was totally deserved. We had a BBQ at the neighbor's house last weekend. I was rather inebriated and wandered home in the dark through the woods and got off the path. It was off of that path that I found the poison ivy. My stupid fault. We went to Germanfest on Saturday and had a great time. I actually got Carly on the tilt-a-whirl which was nothing short of a miracle. The weird part- she liked it. I was proud of her. The kids played outside this afternoon and they got nasty. Anna was not pleased about the picture, but Carly didn't mind.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

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.