Beautiful Poem for all Parents of Special Needs Children

My son Martin will turn 4 in Nov, he is the most amazing little boy you will ever meet, happy, smart and all together wonderful makes everyone that meets him fall under his spell.

He taught me how amazing life is and how incredible it is to be alive, you see Martin is my second child and he had a stroke at birth and was later diagnosed with a mild form of Cerebral Palsy.

When I received the diagnosis I have to say I broke down crying, why Martin? why my little baby boy?
I am happy to say that Martin has been thriving he is receiving all the therapy he needs and is now walking, talking and doing just great!

Like I said he has taught me how wonderful life is, because when you see a child that is so happy despite of any delays or disabilities and just takes everything so well and has such a great attitude it really makes you grateful for all the little things in life.

Raising a child with special needs is not easy but I must say it is also such an incredible experience to have such an amazing child in your life, Martin has showed us that life is a precious gift!

I came across this poem and wanted to share it with you ! Its a beautiful way of describing the wonderful experience of raising a Child with special needs. ENJOY!

WELCOME TO HOLLAND

by
Emily Perl Kingsley.

c1987 by Emily Perl Kingsley. All rights reservedI 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.