Happy Family Day To Us

Today we celebrate 4 years together. A day that really has changed our lives, all of our lives. One this day in 2007, Michael and I met our daughter for the first time and were thrown into full on parenting. The adoption agency and all their training has prepped us for screaming fits, sleepless nights, emotions - but we didn't really have any. After we got back to the home we were staying at in Colombia, she had a bit of a meltdown and fell asleep on my lap. After the nap - no more tears, just smiles, and fun. And it's MOSTLY been that way since. We couldn't have found a more well-behaved, responsibility, fun, cute little girl. She is amazing!

So much has changed for her as well. And not just going from living in an orphanage in Colombia to here. Since we became a family 4 years ago she now walks independently and can almost take care of all of her own medical needs. She is gaining more independence. Melisa is amazing! She is so smart and does well in school. And has many friends.

She was more than we bargained for in all the good ways and the bad. But this ride has been well worth it.

When we got home with Melisa and learned all about her vast medical conditions there was some grieving on my part, but a friend shared this poem with me...

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.

I love Holland!!! I am glad I'm here!

So today we will head to breakfast soon, then tonight off to see Hairspray at the dinner theater (what a surprise that will be). All in the name of celebrating our family.

Thanks for all the prayers and love so many of you have given all of us these years.

Oh, and happy Gotcha Days to our friends - Brealey-Rood's and Robinson's. We all got our kiddos on the same day together.