looking for a poem

[jakeys mum]

A long time ago i read a beautiful poem about having a special needs child. i cant remember what it was called but it was written refering to being in Holland not Paris ( I think???):confused:

Anyway, my best friend is currently strugling having found out her little one has autism :( and its just the sort of thing i know she loves. I wanted to print it up and put it on a board my friends are making for her with photos etc. to remind her that she is never alone we are all there for her

if anyone could tell me where i might find it it would be really appreciated.

[veve]

oooh I am sure that I have a copy SOMEWHERE ... it is about her life travel destination changing.. it is beautiful.. I will go have a look...

xxx

[Seekrit]

Is this the one you were after (http://www.our-kids.org/Archives/Holland.html)
I remember reading it before, it's beautiful.

[veve]

ok - I'm pretty sure this is it ..

Welcome to Holland

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 guidebooks 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 supposed to be in Italy. All my life I 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 guideboods. 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.

by Emily Perl Kingsley

[veve]

ooo seekrit !!! you are tooo quick :)

I hope your friend likes the poem... I will be thinking of her..


((hugs))

[jakeys mum]

:D Thanks heaps guys. thats the one i was looking for!:D :D

[Maghan]

I do love "Welcome to Holland", it descibes my life with children perfectly. I often show it to people who wonder about my life. It always makes me cry...