We are so excited that Lois Collins from the Deseret News decided to do a post on raising challenging children. She talked about the group we started and the challenges we face. The article is wonderful!
Click HERE to go to the story.
we hope that this article spreads awareness, compassion and open discussions!!
What a wonderful blog. I had the opportunity to be in charge of a special needs Young Men group in SLC. It was the best opportunity I have ever experienced. The boys did scouting and were 14 to 58. I am still close to them and loved their love. Raising a special needs child is hard but so rewarding.
ReplyDeleteI received this story written by a mother of a special needs child and I love to read it.
We all need to count and recognize our blessings.
Welcome to Holland
By Emily Pearl Kingsley
When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation to Italy. You buy a bunch of guidebooks about Italy, and make your wonderful plans to see the Coliseum, the Michelangelo David and the gondolas in Venice. You may even learn some phrases in Italian so you can get around. It's all so exciting you can hardly wait.
After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go ... you're on your way to Italy. After many hours in the air, the plane lands at its destination. The flight attendant comes in and says, "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Holland" "Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean, Holland? I signed up to go to Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All of 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. But you know nothing about Holland and you don't want to stay. The important thing is they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease; you are simply in a different place than you had planned.
Since you have no choice, you get off the plane and go out and buy new guidebooks, and you decide to learn a few new phrases in Dutch. You meet a group of people you would never have met, that you never knew existed. You discover that Holland isn't a terrible place, it is just a different place. It's slower paced than Italy, and 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, 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."
The loss of that "dream" is a very significant loss, and the pain of that loss will never, ever, ever go away. But if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to go to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things about Holland.
Enjoy the blog and the support of all you wonderful parents