Welcome To Holland

The last couple of weeks have been a bit... difficult. Knowing that a new little life has begun in such a difficult way has been trying, and finding out just two days ago that his fight is nowhere near over was heartbreaking... until I read this.

I love Italy, and it is my dream in more ways than one... but Holland has it's treasures too!

WELCOME TO HOLLAND

by Emily Perl Kingsley

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.

Matthew 25:31-46

Someone shared this story on Facebook this morning and I felt a need to do the same, here, for many reasons. I am far from religious, but I certainly have a great respect for humanity and this story spoke to me. But, before I post it, I want to share something with you first.

Years ago I went out for dinner and, as usual, had far too much food in front of me. I ate about half of what I had ordered and asked for the rest of the meal to go. As I was walking down the street it dawned on me that I really did not feel like carrying this bag of food around with me for the rest of the night, especially not on the metro and bus going home. So, I found a trashcan and was about to throw it out when I spotted a homeless man out of the corner of my eye and in that moment I had an epiphany... I hate leftovers! In fact, when I have them I usually end up throwing them away the next day. So, what if instead of taking my food to go and throwing it out I gave it to someone who needed it? And that is what I did that day and have done ever since. I am not sure how he felt about leftover Calamari and pasta but it would suit me fine! Think about it… food for thought!

Anyhow, on to the story… It seems that this whole thing may be a work of fiction or a compilation of true stories sewn together – but whatever it is, the message it illustrates is important… 

Church Members Mistreat Homeless Man in Church Unaware It Is Their Pastor in Disguise (no original source - sorry)

Pastor Jeremiah Steepek (pictured below) transformed himself into a homeless person and went to the 10,000 member church that he was to be introduced as the head pastor at that morning. He walked around his soon to be church for 30 minutes while it was filling with people for service, only 3 people out of the 7-10,000 people said hello to him. He asked people for change to buy food - NO ONE in the church gave him change. He went into the sanctuary to sit down in the front of the church and was asked by the ushers if he would please sit n the back. He greeted people to be greeted back with stares and dirty looks, with people looking down on him and judging him.

September Is Flying By!

The summer went by so quickly, and now we are already half way through September. Can you believe it? It will be Christmas before we know it! Back to school was CRAZY this year (which is why I haven’t been posting) but it is finally calming down! Now I get to play catch up from the last two weeks and try to get ahead on next week since I won’t be here all at once! Fun!

So, where were we last?

My birthday weekend was a blast! Not because of my birthday but because of the huge wedding the day before. My little bride was beautiful and the groom, casual and cool as always. And the flower girl was the cutest thing ever… my niece of course! The priest was half an hour late but kept things short and sweet and then it was on to the party. The hall was decorated beautifully, the food was very good, and things seemed to be perfect as far as I could tell. The happy couple is still on their honeymoon and I can’t wait for them to get back so we can look through all their pictures and see their new home! I miss you guys!

My birthday itself was quiet; a trip to the pet store and dinner at The Keg with DH. Exactly what I wanted! It hasn’t all turned out well though. I got a Betta and four Tetras for my new aquarium and by the following week they had all died! I think the Betta hunted the Tetras and then got sick from bacteria in the water. I tried to medicate him but he didn’t make it. Sigh. And, my gift from DH has been a total train wreck, but I am still working on that one so I won't bore you with the details just yet.

Labour Day weekend we went camping in Lake Placid again with our new big tent and did a lot of nothing. It was nice to do nothing for once! Of course I had to get sick right before we left but the fresh air actually seemed to help a lot. I think I have a new cure for my constant sinus infections!

Also on Labour Day weekend, my nephew finally made his appearance! He didn’t like August it seems so he chose September 1st! Unfortunately his first couple of weeks haven’t gone as expected, and he still hasn’t seen his beautiful room that his Mommy and Daddy built for him, but hopefully he will go home soon! In either case, I am on my way there this weekend to meet him for the first time and I can’t wait!

To replace the Betta/Tetra disaster, I went out yesterday and bought two Angel Goldfish instead. They should be more resilient so we will see how this goes… I consider them to be like goats of the sea – eat anything and not care if the water isn’t perfect – so hopefully these ones will last longer!

Anyhow, that’s it for now. Break over, back to work!