My friend Catherine and I have been friends since we were in third grade! Whew we have some memories that is fo sho! Who would have ever thought we would grow up still just as close and our babies would play together. I wanted to share her Christmas card from this year and how it reminds us of just how blessed and fortunate we are. Catherine is so strong and stays so positive there is no doubt God gives to those special people who He knows can handle it..... she is truly an inspiration!
"We were blessed with a precious child in September. We later learned that he was born with Down Syndrome. With the help of friends, family and lots of prayers we were able to find such joy in this new life. This is a story given to me about raising a child with special needs."
"Welcome To Holland"
by Emily Perl Kingsley
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 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 supposes 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 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 awhile 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 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.
4 comments:
Wow, I have several friends who would like to read that.
Thanks for sharing that Heather. My oldest was born with a birth defect, that no one caught on the ultrasound. I remember feeling those feelings of "this is not what I signed up for". God deals you a hand of cards and you just have to play them. :) Thanks again.
Doesn't that scenario apply to most of us... in many different situations. God gives us what he believes we can handle... our job is to look for the silver lining and find our true strength in the process.
Hope you're well - still moving furniture??? Merry Christmas!!!
You are all so right.... all of our children have so many "special" qualities and we have to embrace them all - and we do!
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