What's on Bennett's mind today?

Bennett: Mom, why can't I see my face unless I look in a mirror?

Something to share on Easter...

Sorrows

The most famous man in history held me today while I cried.

He didn’t question my faith and point out that I was weak.
He didn’t tell me to use my head and make sense of it all.
He didn’t push me to stand up, dust myself off and get on with things.

Instead, he simply reminded me that he had cried alone, too –
that he had been a man of sorrows.

He whispered in my ear that he had, in fact, chosen to die
an agonizing death just for me, for this very moment.

Natalie Morris
January 24, 2008

A couple of reasons I love the Bible today

#1
In his kindness God called you to his eternal glory by means of Jesus Christ. After you have suffered a little while, he will restore, support, and strengthen you, and he will place you on a firm foundation.
(1 Peter 5:10, NLT)

#2
Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, so we may sing for joy to the end of our lives. Give us gladness in proportion to our former misery! Replace the evil years with good. Let us see your miracles again; let our children see your glory at work. And may the Lord our God show us his approval and make our efforts successful. Yes, make our efforts successful! (Psalm 90:14-17, NLT)

Welcome to Holland

This is a classic, meaningful essay that I read again today and thought I'd share with you. It was written by the mother of a "disabled" child to explain the paradigm shift that happens when you discover your kid isn't "normal." Life will not be what we expected. Even with the aching that comes with it, we love 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.

c1987 by Emily Perl Kingsley. All rights reserved