Welcome to Holland!

This story has been a blessing to many people including myself. Just the other night I had a dream that my son and I were out at a park and I was passing a football to him and he was catching it and having a great time. Some things are difficult but this story is VERY encouraging!


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.

Emily Perl Kingsley 1987

Matthew Chases Daddy

Matthew is blind and usually doesn't run very many places because he is afraid he will run into things and be injured. However, when he chases Daddy he knows it's safe! What if God's children learned this lesson? We walk (run) by faith and not by sight :-)

click below and check out the video

Matthew Chasing Daddy

10 Things I Have Learned From Raising Blind Kids

10 Things (among many others) I have learned from raising blind kids!

1. If there is candy in the house they will find it just as fast as any sighted kid (or faster)!
2. The cat isn't the only one who gets into the Christmas tree.
3. Facial expressions are natural not learned in most cases. (including sticking out their tongue)
4. It doesn't take sight to have a fascination with flushing strange objects down the toilet.
5. Many things in life are impossible to describe.
6. It is NOT ok to touch some things because they are blind and they want to know what it is.
7. Fear is far more disabling than being blind.
8. Two year olds know alot more than anyone thinks (our kids started talking in full sentences at 15 months).
9. Dogs aren't the only ones who can recognize people by their smell.
10. They still want to drive :-0