I received this from a friend that has a child with autism. I wanted to include it because it is such an understanding way of looking at children with disabilities.
I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a
disability- to try to help people who have not shared this 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 your wonderful
plans. The Coliseum, the Michelangelo David, the gondolas in Venice.
You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It is 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 suppose 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 then Italy, less flashy then Italy,
but after you've been there for a while you begin to notice that Holland has
windmills, 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 suppose to go. That's what I had planned.
"The pain of that 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 of Holland."
written by Emily Pearl Kingsley, appeared in "Dear Abby"
"Listen to the mustn'ts, child
Listen to the don'ts
Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts
Listen to the never haves,
then listen close to me...
Anything can happen, child
Anything can be."
Shel Silverstein
..."What would I do?" I said to Pooh,
"If it wasn't for you," and Pooh said: "True,
It isn't much fun for One, but Two
Can stick together," says Pooh, says he.
"That's how it is," says Pooh.
A.A Milne "Us Two"
A Mother's Mission
A mother's job is special
And carries strong demands
With the molding of the little life
God places in her lands.
Though her life may not be glamorous,
The world will see her worth,
For 'tis true "The hands that rock the cradle
Are the hands that rule the earth."
To bring her children up in Christ
Indeed is very much,
For the years will show her value
By the lives, their lives, will touch.
-Author unknown
