Welcome to Holland: When Life Does Not Go As Planned

A friend of mine shared this poem at MOPS this week, and it really spoke to my heart. So many times we think we have our lives all planned out, and most of the time God has something different in-store for us. Am I willing to accept His plan instead of mine? Am I willing to give up the control over the big and little things in this life? Through life's joys and struggles, take the time to ENJOY HOLLAND....it is not what we expected, but it is beautiful. God will reveal Himself and you will start to see the "good" around you and the glory and grace of our Creator. Welcome To Holland I am often asked to describe the experience of raisin a child with disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to imagine how it would feel. It is like this... When you're goin to have a baby, it is like plannin a fabulous vaction trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guidebooks and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michaelangelo David. The Gondolas of Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It is all very Excitin. After months of anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bag 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 am supposed to be in Italy. All my life I have dreamed of goin to Italy! '. But there has been a change in flight plan, they have landed in Holland and there you must stay. The important thing in that they have not taken you to a horrible, disgustin, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It is just a different place. So you must go out and buy new guidebooks. And you must learn a new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met before. It is just a different place. It's a slower paced than Italy. It's less flashy than Italy. But after you have been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills, Holland has tulips and Holland even has Rembrandts. But everyone you know is busy comin and goin from Italy and they are all braggin about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life you will say, 'Yes, that is where i was supposed to go, That's where I had planned'. And the pain of that will never, ever go away, because the loss of that dream is a very significant loss, but if you spend your life mournin the fact that you didn't go to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things about Holland. Poem by Dannielle Williams