[senco-forum] A letter from Holland

Here it is!!

Fresh from ....... Holland!

Groetjes,
Cecilia

WELCOME TO HOLLAND
"I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a
disability... 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... After months of anticipation, the day finally arrives... 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 now 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 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 awhile and you
catch your breath, you look around and 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 supposed to go. That's
what I had planned.' And 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
about Holland."

-----Oorspronkelijk bericht-----
Van: senco-forum-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk
[mailto:senco-forum-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk] Namens Mary Dowson
Verzonden: 02 October 2007 19:12
Aan: senco-forum at lists.becta.org.uk
Onderwerp: [senco-forum] A letter from Holland

Does anyone have a copy of this piece of writing.. it describes a mother
coming to terms with her child's disability. I've lost mine ....

Mary 