Thursday 20 December 2012

Blog 55 - Welcome to Holland - Dealing with the News of Having a Disabled Child

After Jessica was born and we found out that she had Down syndrome, I went into a period of depression and mourning. She was not the baby that I was expecting and I did not know what the future held for her and for us as a family.  We were expecting her to either have a mild form of Crouzons or no syndrome at all. It was a huge shock to know that she had Down syndrome instead (and thankfully no Crouzons with it).  But I did not know anything about Downs, nor did I know anyone with Downs, and my world collapsed. So many irrational things would go through my mind...fear of the unknown quickly took over and devoured me.

I was sent this story and it encaptulates exactly how I was feeling...

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 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. Emily Perl Kingsley 1987


I am now enjoying the uniqueness of Holland!

© 2012 by Jenny Woolsey
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