Constant Sunshine: I have new glasses

I told you I had got new glasses, and now Mummy has a new camera, so she can take pictures again! As I don't wear them very often, I wanted to show you while I still had them on. This is me watching Toy Story with my new glasses on :o)

The Down Syndrome Creed

My face may be different but my feelings are the same.
I laugh and I cry and take pride in my gains.
I was sent here among you to teach you to love,
as God in the heavens looks down from above.
To Him, I'm no different His love knows no bounds;
It's those here among you in the cities and towns,
that judge me by standards that man has imparted,
but this family I've chosen, will help me get started.
For I'm one of the children so special and few,
that came here to learn the same lessons as you.
That love is acceptance, it must come from the heart;
We all have the same purpose, though not the same start.
The Lord gave me life to live and embrace,
and I'll do it as you do, but at my own pace.
~Author Unknown

Welcome to Holland - Emily Perl Kingsley

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. Michelangelo's 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.

Copyright © 1987 by Emily Perl KingsleyAll Rights Reserved

Constant Sunshine

Friday, September 21, 2007

I have new glasses

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The Down Syndrome Creed

Down Syndrome

Welcome to Holland - Emily Perl Kingsley