Welcome to Holland

How many of you have read or heard the poem, Welcome to Holland? It is a beautiful poem. I first saw this video and heard it  during my training for work. Now when I read it, it hits home a little more. I feel like we're taking a new road on our journey with Caleb. We've been winding down on our own for so long....knowing certain things seemed much harder for him and us...not understanding why. With all this new information this week we finally have the missing puzzle pieces put together. I feel as though we now have answers and we're winding new curves with people who understand him and are telling us that yes...there is something going on inside and we are going to help him get it all worked out. I've been doing a lot of random crying this week. Crying tears of relief, crying tears of sadness, tears of hope, many tears for Caleb..the sacrifice of driving so far each week, the worry over finances, the effort of running the home program for him. But there are a lot of good tears too. There is so much good going on now. We have felt so much hope this week. There are hopeful tears and a confidence and a feeling of encouragement in that we are helping him and he's going to be okay. A very special person has entered his life and ours. She's giving us great tools to help him and us for life. It is only his first week with OT but already we're winding new curves in the road and our home is singing a happier, more hopeful tune this week.

 wagon walk. love those toes.

 

here is what OT looked like for us this week.

arriving. gentle massage and joint compressions (which I learned how to do today) to 'wake' up his proprioceptive and vestibular system.

swinging (caleb really enjoys the 'hot' dog style swing) helps with balance/vestibular

doing polar bear walks (proprioceptive system) he is on all fours walking across the room...pressure going into his hands gives sensory input

running, hopping, jumping, (trampoline), therapy ball (any one of those we've done this week...therapy and at home)

we end session with a table top activity (puzzles or matching puzzles this week) by this time his system is 'woken up' and he is able to sit and engage a little longer than he normally would.

His OT is working on building up his trunk strength (bear walks) when he has the strength in his trunk, he'll be able to sit up straight for longer periods.

This is just the jist of what I understand and see and am learning about! There is so much more and this is just a small part. It is so fascinating to me. I am enjoying the process of learning all these great activities to help Caleb.

It is also challenging at times! He doesn't want to do certain ones and his anxiety level shoots up and he melts down. This has happened a few times. Lucas gets to be in the room with us and always brings him out of it. These two brother boys of mine. I always smile and think how they must have known each other in heaven and told God to place them with one another on earth. They are such blessings to one another :)

I'm so glad it is almost friday!! What a whirlwind week.

(in case you can't listen to the video here is the poem to read)
c1987 by Emily Perl Kingsley. All rights reserved

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.