Welcome to Holland
by Emily Perl Kingsley
Copyright ©1987 by Emily Perl Kingsley. All rights reserved.
Reprinted by permission of the author.
 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.
|
Inspiration
The
Creed of Babies with Down Syndrome 
That man has imparted 
Doctors have come 
They
say I must be one of the wonders 
I'm a challenge 
fate smiled & destiny 
