A VERY, VERY Special Day!!!

First of all let me say a MASSIVE thank you to all you blippers who popped in on my 500th blip yesterday. I am totally overwhelmed by all the stars, hearts comments and views AND new subscribers! Apparently it even made the Blipfoto FB group, which I didn't even know existed!

You are a very special gang that I am proud to be part of and I will get around to thanking you all individually xxxx

But back to today...a very special day indeed for not only is it my gorgeous boy's birthday, but his 16th at that!

And it's back to school today as well......the first birthday he's ever had on a school day as it normally falls during the school hols.

As he only moved to his new school at the beginning of June I was a little worried he would be quite anxious about returning but as you can see from today's blip (taken surreptitiously as he refuses to pose these days!) he was in a smiley mood and went off full of the joys! Although he did want to discuss the Christmas hols before he went!!! :-))

Those of you who know my journal well are aware that Alan has cerebral palsy and I shared a little of how bittersweet his birthdays are for me in last year's birthday blip so I won't bore you with that again.

What I will share with you is an short essay that was written by Emily Perl Kingsley and was given to me by a friend when Alan was 5 months old and had recently been diagnosed with CP.

When my friend gave it to me I almost didn't' read it as we had received lots of poems and verses from well-meaning friends about "special babies" being given to "special parents" and inside I was screaming "but I'm NOT a special parent and I don't want to be a special parent! I don't know how!!!!" whilst smiling sweetly and thanking them for their thoughtfulness....

But I am so glad I did read this. I read it lots in the first year of Alan's life and although it's only occasionally that I read it now, its words and positive message make me smile as much today as it did then....especially as I now know how true her words are.

So Happy Birthday my big cheeky, messy, noisy handsome lad....I love you to the moon and back.....and then some! xxxxxx

WELCOME TO HOLLAND by Emily Perl Kingsley.

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.

:-)) xx