Hasta La Vista BABY!

Well, folks.....I am out of here. Well, not actually yet but as of 6 am tomorrow morning I am. :o) And I cannot tell you how excited I am to get out of town. We are going to Kentucky to visit my family. We go every year, and our vacation is always made up of doing wonderfully relaxed things. We stare at cows, eat good food, go shopping at the cute little shops, eat good food, go for walks holding hands, visit with my wonderful family, and of course eat good food. Oh, and we eat good food. Did I already say that? And I have to tell you all that we have made some major lifestyle changes in an effort to just become healthier. I have lost 8 lbs and my hubby has lost 15 lbs!!! Of course, now the problem is, we will likely gain it all back on our trip.

To my clients who are waiting on orders, please know that the lab is delaying my deliveries this week. I didn't really think it would be a good idea to let those things lay on my porch. Well, actually my sister and her fiance will be here off and on - but she's not really looking to be me for a week. ;o) I will have my laptop with me to check emails as I can, but will likely return emails when we return the week after Thanksgiving.

I hope you all have a safe and blessed Thanksgiving! I am leaving you all with a wonderful story, one that has recently become very close to my heart. It's a story about taking a trip, thinking you are going to Italy and ending up in Holland. We have been in Holland for some time it seems, but are just finding out where we are. And just learning that Holland is a very wonderful place, worth loving. Holland is beautiful.


I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to help people who have not shared this 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 - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guidebooks and make wonderful plans. The Coliseum. 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 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 will never, 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 go to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things. About Holland.