Found this on the Internet today. Thought I'd share.
"Welcome to Holland"
by 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. 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."
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3 comments:
Very nicely written. Such a wonderful way of looking at diabetes. BTW, my dad is diabetic (type 2, not insulin dependent now but diet and pill controlled). Anyways, my point is every year we make homemade ice cream at their July 4th celebration. My mom has a recipe for a low sugar, low fat peach ice cream. Not sure if you are interested, but I can get the recipe for you. It is really good and you cannot even tell it is low sugar low fat.
Take care and love you all.
Would love the recipe, Julie! We're trying lots of new things around her but mainly watching our portion sizes. Millie loves ice cream. Please send.
Homemade Ice Cream (low fat low sugar)
6 eggs beaten until frothy
2 cups splenda
2 cans fat free Eagle Brand milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
*Mix all these together first in a bowl*then slowly stir in...
2 small pkg sugar free fat free vanilla instant pudding
*pour into ice cream freezer, add fruit if wanted*then add skim milk to fill ice cream freezer*Make according to freezer instructions
This is really good. Not completely sugar free but at least it is better than other homemade recipes. Have fun!!!
Writing this makes me want to get our ice cream freezer out!
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