Welcome To Holland

This is a great piece of writing. It's a bit long, but if you have the time, read through it...you'll love it.

Welcome to Holland--
By Emily Pearl Kingsley

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a
disability- to try to help people who have not share that unique
experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like
this.....

When you are going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous
vacation trip to Italy. You buy a bunch of guidebooks and make your
wonderful plans...the Coliseum, the Michelangelo David, the Gondolas in
Venice. You may even 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 guidebooks. And you must learn a whole
new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would
have never 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 you catch your
breath, you look around and you begin to notice that Holland has
windmills, Holland has tulips, Holland has Rembrandt's.

But everyone 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".

The pain will never, 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.


Celebrating Holland- I'm Home
By Cathy Anthony
(follow-up to the original Welcome to Holland by Emily Pearl Kingsley)

I have been in Holland for over a decade now. It has become home. I have had time to catch my breath, to settle and adjust, to accept something different than I'd planned. I reflect back on those years of past when I had first landed in Holland. I remember clearly my shock, my fear, my anger, the pain and uncertainty. In those first few years, I tried to get back to Italy as planned, but Holland was where I was to stay. Today, I can say how far I have come on this unexpected journey. I have learned so much more. But, this too has been a journey of time.

I worked hard. I bought new guidebooks. I learned a new language and I slowly found my way around this new land. I have met others whose plans had changed like mine, and who could share my experience. We supported one another and some have become very special friends.

Some of these fellow travelers had been in Holland longer than I and were seasoned guides, assisting me along the way. Many have encouraged me. Many have taught me to open my eyes to the wonder and gifts to behold in this new land. I have discovered a community of caring. Holland wasn't so bad.
I think that Holland is used to wayward travelers like me and grew to become a land of hospitality, reaching out to welcome, to assist and to support newcomers like me in this new land. Over the years, I've wondered what life would have been like if I'd landed in Italy as planned. Would life have been easier? Would it have been as rewarding? Would I have learned some of the important lessons I hold today?

Sure, this journey has been more challenging and at times I would (and still do) stomp my feet and cry out in frustration and protest. And, yes, Holland is slower paced than Italy and less flashy than Italy, but this too has been an unexpected gift. I have learned to slow down in ways too and look closer at things, with a new appreciation for the remarkable beauty of Holland with its tulips, windmills and Rembrandts.

I have come to love Holland and call it Home.

I have become a world traveler and discovered that it doesn't matter where you land. What's more important is what you make of your journey and how you see and enjoy the very special, the very lovely, things that Holland, or any land, has to offer.

Yes, over a decade ago I landed in a place I hadn't planned. Yet I am thankful, for this destination has been richer than I could have imagined!