Hugs for Tator & Tot March

One of the amazing things about the "blogosphere" is that you get to meet the most incredible people by reading their posts, watching their videos, and looking at their photos. I have never even talked to most of my blogger buddies in person or even on the phone! But I feel like we all know each other so well because each post lets us into each other's world a little bit more. Most of my blog buddies are other MoM's (mothers of multiples), so we're going through this wild and crazy ride together. One of my buddies, Jenn, has a blog called The Adventures of Tator & Tot March. Her boys, Zachary and Jacob, are adorable and I love reading her posts about their love of Disneyland (and frequent trips already) and other adventures! Her Wordless Wednesday posts are the best-- there are photos, but no words and most need no words anyway!

Yesterday, Jake was diagnosed with autism. My heart sank to hear such devastating news. I simply could not believe it! But as I would expect, as soon as I went to her blog, she had the most inspiring post filled with optimism. She quoted this article and I thought I'd share it with all of you. Hugs to you, Jenn, and to Tator and Tot, too!!! ;)

WELCOME TO HOLLAND

c1987 by Emily Perl Kingsley. All rights reserved

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.