Welcome To Holland

Matthew Alexander Holsten

It's taken me a long time to figure out how to write about Matthew coming into our lives. I've felt so overwhelmed about what to say and how to say it, that I just avoided it. I think I needed to meet him; to realize that I knew him during my pregnancy, because I didn't think I did. (More on that another time). Nevertheless, he's here! He's joined our family and now I'd like to try and get it all down. I'm starting with this essay. I don't know how well known it is, I only know that I read it years ago, long before I ever knew that one day I'd have a child with Down syndrome. Mostly I think it describes the experience perfectly (so far). But then I read it sometimes and have trouble with the pain part; having a child with Down syndrome is not something I want to feel sad about for the rest of my life. I don't think she's actually saying that, but the sadness part is complicated and real and has to be kept in perspective. So here it goes! Welcome to my new life--in Holland.

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.