CARD Party

Above our pictures of people we have met along the way that mean alot to us!

This past week we were able to celebrate with The Center for Autism and Related Disorders, (CARD). It was a heartwarming experience to be in a room filled with people who are all supportive, know how you feel, and ready to work hard for your family. It was a party to show progress and to thank legislators who support our cause. A great night for sure! I was able to hug my therapists (although I prefer to call them educators or supports) for a long time, and thank them literally for the blood, sweat, tears, vomit, and snot they endure to bring about change. Amazing individuals, all of them.

Below is a beautiful essay that I can relate to. Depending on the day depends how receptive I am to it. I think it can be appilcalbe in many of life's surprises.

Holland
c1987 by Emily Perl Kingsley
I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with challenges

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.

In fairness. I have been contacted my a small number of mothers in my situation. They prefer the Welcome to BEIRUT essay written by a mother with Autism. I have read it, it's accurate and somewhat bleek. I would like to say publicaly, I know exactly how that feels. But who the heck wants to live in Beirut? I can not really see what good comes from viewing your life through that lense. So it's Welcome to Holland for me.

To all my supporters out there, Chrismas music is playing and decorations are slowly coming out of storage.