This is a little thing I had sent to me a long time ago.....I find it a bit interesting.....gives you an idea of what this journey feels like.....it is way more delicate than how I would put it....probably better that way.....



WELCOME TO HOLLAND

byEmily Perl Kingsley.
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.




Kaden today: absolutely adorable.....he was so cute, smiling, laughing.....he is a joy to be around. He was off oxygen alot today and that makes us sooooo happy. Blood sugars are great and he is done antibiotics. Ketones are not fabulous but he himself is doing well so that is great!!! He shares a room with another patient and his roommate got moved today. It was an East Indian family. He was a little 9 year old boy with many challenges since he was born. He must have been popular cause the visitors this boy had was amazing! He was always surrounded by at least 4-5 people. Anyways when they moved him his dad came over and told me that Kaden was such a cute and smiley little guy with such a nice disposition. He said he never saw him cry in the three days that they were in there. That children with health issues are very special and there are no other kids quite like them and that he prays for all the sick kids in the hospital cause they shouldn't have to go through this in their young lives... its not fair.... His amazing sense of caring towards his son and their sense of family is very inspiring. You have to appreciate every moment as you never know when it will be taken away from you.....THAT is what our kids and absolute strangers have taught us...........they are the most important and everything else comes second.....


Elle today: she is wonderful. Full of smiles and giggles. I spent the morning with her and then went to the hospital for the afternoon and evening so we have not spent much time together. Her and daddy were busy playing and goofing around today!!!