Welcome to Holland....

Hey!

Like I promised I'm back to share some very exciting news with y'all!

As most of my readers know I have a younger sister named Emily. We are 5 years apart and couldn't be more different from each other. She could give a crap about what people think and is totally confident in who she is. I on the other hand am a people pleaser and care (entirely) too much about what people think. One of the things I love about her is that she won't shoot you no bull. Emily will always tell you her true opinion and is always honest. She sees no evil in anyone while I on the other hand am very skeptical of others. She is everything I am not  and I envy her heart and soul so very much.

When Emily was born she was pre-mature. A tiny tiny little baby that my dad held in just the palm of one of his hands. She wore cabbage patch doll clothes for the first month or so and even stayed in the cabbage patch doll play pen. As time went on she did grow but slowly. She was a very ill baby which led to us finding out she had celiac disease. As she got older we came to realize that she not only was smaller than her age group, she was behind in other ways too. While I don't remember the events of when and how my parents figured out Emily didn't learn or have motor skills up to par like other kids, I do know that I have experienced a ton of heartache with them over the years with this setback.

My sister graduated high school this past June. She was so happy and we all cried as she walked across the stage to get her diploma. My parents were so proud and happy that she was able to graduate like every other kid dreams of. The next thing on her list to do was of course....College. About a month ago my mom found out that there were no special education classes offered at the college level unless you could fork out around 50,000 grand a year for tuition. My mom proceeded to find out that the only way that Emily was going to be able to attend college was if she was pre-enrolled by her high school to a program called Elevate.

Long story short my sister's high school didn't inform my parents that there was a program that existed. My mom went on to find out that the program has never had a student from my sister's high school in it. Let's just say the high school could care less about special education students because they seriously dropped the ball in this situation alone. I could literally go on for days with all the idiotic things they have done but I won't. This is a happy post and I believe God knows what he is doing and all that my sister, mom and dad have had to endure is just all a part of his bigger plan.

After going from campus to campus looking, searching, crying, begging, pleading with anyone that worked at Navarro College my mom was finally able to speak to a special needs coordinator. This woman helped my mom and led her in registering my sister for COLLEGE! If I would have been there I probably would have squeezed that woman to death! My mom had been so upset and worried that Emily wasn't going to get to have a life after high school. Not that she had much of one while she attended high school but my mom, dad and myself have done whatever we could to make sure she got to experience things just like all the other kids.

We have spent a lot of time in prayer over the past couple of weeks and especially this past weekend. I specifically wanted whatever God's will was for my sister. I know all the years that went by that Emily wasn't invited to this party or that party. All of the days she endured being made fun of, called a loser, a retard, a weirdo and whatever else those little shits could think of to call her was for a reason. I believe with all of my heart that all those parties she missed out on, high school events she didn't get to experience that God was protecting her from all the things that could have gone terribly wrong. My mother has had her heart ripped out so many times while experiencing those things with Emily and I try to constantly remind her that all this is for a reason.

Yesterday, God delivered. Like I said we have spent weeks (more like years) worried about whether or not Emily was going to have a life after high school. All in one day my baby sister got a job and enrolled in college. A day we didn't know was ever going to happen. I was beyond elated. This is finally her chance to be a 20 year old young woman. I can't wait to see how God is going to work in her life. Now more than ever I know all those days that we spent crying and upset were worth the while.

My sister may be "different" but she is also beautiful, smart, happy, loving, true, caring, honest and most of all she is Emily. She is a person, a human being and she deserves a chance at life just like the rest of the "normal" people do. What is normal anyway?

I can tell you that she may be my sister and we may fight, say mean things to each other and some days I want to ring her neck, I love her so very much it hurts. I am going to leave y'all now with a poem written by a woman who has a special needs child. I want to encourage everyone to really read this poem. It applies not only to special needs children it applies to life as well.

Welcome to Holland


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.

by
Emily Perl Kingsley

Love,

E