Welcome to Holland

Since December many people have told me that I am a strong person,
or they will say that I am a special person.  I know that Evan's
diagnosis has made our life a busier one, but it is a good life!  A
couple people have sent us this story in an email, and it really does
describe what it feels like to go through what we have and will experience.
Enjoy!

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Welcome to Holland

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a
disability, to try to help people who haven't 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 guidebooks and make your
wonderful plans..the Coliseum, the Michelangelo, gondolas. You may
learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.

After several 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 pace.

So you go out and buy new guidebooks and you must learn a whole new
language and you will meet a whole new group of people you would have
never 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. You begin to notice that
Holland has windmills, Holland has tulips, and 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 experience will
never, ever, ever go away. The loss of that dream is a 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.

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UTAH: DAY 3

Today was a wonderfully lazy day. It was the sunday session of General conference and we all just lazed about the sanchez's basement and watched the leaders of our church give their wisdom.

Evan and I took a walk with my sister Sarah and my Mom between sessions. After the last session everyone headed to the park and had a grand ol' time. My favorite part about this vacation was watching my family with my son. They love Evan so much and it was wonderful to see them shower him with love. He really had a great time with them too.

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this picture!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Evan playing football

My sisters