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Faith & Hope

I love meeting new people, but I truly treasure meeting people who have a child with special needs. Something about those folks just warms your heart.

Today I met Beth. She’s a mom of four and her youngest, Seth, was born with hydrocephalus (water on the brain). Seth is 2 years old and he is obviously a miracle. I love it when doctors say “this child will never _____.” Mostly because God usually has something different planned.

Meeting Beth was wonderful because she was able share some some things that would help us in our journey. She shared her insight about having a child with visual and auditory impairment. She shared her wisdom and her tears. And before I left she shared this poem that someone had shared with her. I hope you’ll share it as well.

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.

10 thoughts on “Share”

  1. What a great poem, this applies to everyone. You can replace Italy and Holland with anything. God has his plan of Holland for us and we have ours of Italy. We think we know whats going to be the best and awesome and great for our lives, but God has a better plan. I get caught up with the little things in life, It’s like my friends are in Italy and I’m in Holland, but like you said its not that Holland is bad like a 3rd world country. But that is God’s path for them and I’m on my own special road. God is using this path to Mold and Shape us to be more like Christ.

    At our Woman’s Titus Tuesday group at Church (we’re studying God’s providence), we went over the Life of Joseph (Genesis 37, 39-45 and 50) and how God ordained everything in his life for Good. Joseph had complete trust and faith in God’s plan, he went through so many trials being sold into slavery, put in prison, and being wrongly accused, all undeserved. He even had no bitterness or resentment after all this.

    Sometimes we don’t like the direction God takes us and sometimes we are stuck waiting like Joseph (2 years in prison). But God’s timing is always perfect. And so is his plan.

    Here’s the link if your interested at all there’s also a pdf with notes there too. It just put me back in my place this week and gave me a little more contentment in God’s plan. (are we ever content?)

    MP3: http://www.ihcc.org/download/sites/all/files/media/2013/notbychance_05_js.mp3

    PDF: http://www.ihcc.org/sites/all/files/media/2013/05_notbychance_js.pdf

    Here is the site these are from:
    http://www.ihcc.org/node/3491

    1. Jacey, very wise words!! Thank you for sharing your perspective. 🙂 I just love you!!

  2. YES! Love love love that poem. Being a mom of a little boy with Down Syndrome has definitely changed me entirely. They say becoming a mother will change your life, boy were they right! He has taught me so much in just 2 1/2yrs its astounding. Often times I feel “we” should have some sort of special hand shake or signal because we are a part of a club, a club of parents who just get each other. It is so humbling all the people I have met and continue to meet, all the stories I continue to read, His LOVE is never ending! So many things they told me Joseph wouldn’t do, up to how his teeth wouldn’t grow “in order” well his teeth came in just like any other child’s. He defies the odds every single day, he is my hero. Joseph WILL do ALL things, on HIS time. That’s what he’s taught me, a whole new definition of patience. 🙂 Thanks for sharing Sam! Love to your beautiful family!

    1. Thanks Genevie for sharing!! I just love your family as well!!! You have a unique experience that not many people get to experience and you’re wiser because of it! Thanks for sharing this so others can see it!!

  3. Sam you are a very wise person and I thank my lucky stars that you are a part of my family, you are strong, brave,and just an all round wonderful person, I hope you keep meeting these different people to keep you strong, wise and brave. LOVE YOU

    1. Thanks Marla, the woman who wrote the poem put it beautifully! 🙂 thanks for reading!

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