'It's just a different place"

Welcome!
So this is my blog..... all about me...well not really me but my life and how everyday I am reminded to look at things differently because of a certain little person who turned my world upside-down and took me to a 'different place'
I thought about beginning a blog for a while because I enjoy reading other people's but discovering a piece of writting called 'Welcome to Holland' gave me the push to do it. It made me want to share with you my very own little Holland - my little boy - and what life is like when you are taken somewhere you weren't planning on going. This is NOT a 'please feel sorry for me' blog AT ALL it is just a little look into my daily life which is different to how I ever imagined. Sure its more complicated but thats life right? It's happy, and busy, and fun, and weird, and stressful and amazing all in one. So let me entertain you, make you smile and perhaps connect with some of you who have also taken a detour for whatever reason. Enjoy x x x Also find me on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/mylittlehollandsite123/

To be clear.... I DID NOT WRITE THIS POEM!  I came across it and think it puts into words how I (and many others) feel so beautifully. (Also...to cover my back I do not think everyone who has a child with disabilities feels like or can relate to this....but I do...no offence...no assumptions...hopefully we are all still friends...if not maybe this blog is not for you ;-) )

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.

by Emily Perl Kingsley.