Author: Howard Darko
audio librum
Pretty Ugly Poem
Welcome to Holland
I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with 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.
by Emily Perl Kingsley
The Nightingale Pledge
Reichstag fire
blessing prayer
Jehovah God, heavenly father, creator, and king of the universe. We come before you as two broken and hurting children praying for your blessing of peace and joy. We are willingly giving ourselves to you and wish for your will in our lives. We know it was your will for our lives to cross on our earthly journey and we now wish to know what your eternal will for us is.
We pray that if it is not your will for us to be together that you will remove the tether between us so we may have peace in finding the ones you have created for us. But, if it is your will for us to be together we pray that you will strengthen the bond by weaving a marriage braid out of our souls with your holy spirit as the binding force. A braid so perfectly designed in your spirit that it will hold the test of time because it is your blood that will bind us.
Father, I also ask that you will continue to provide us with the opportunity to build up each other. That all things we say and do to and for each other be to glorify you and to help the other evolve into the child of Christ they were meant to be. That even the things that feel like they are meant to destroy and tear down are in fact the gifts of love to help each other heal and grow closer to each other my becoming closer to you.
And if it is not your will for us to be together I pray for a blessing on my sister in Christ. I pray that she may finally meet the man of God you have designed for her. I ask that you bless them with an abundance of healthy children and a long joyful life together united in you.
4-3
there are 4 chambers to my heart, and you — which is 3 letters, are in one of them
my Queen’s list
she must be a sister in Christ
she must be willing to be the mother of my children
she must be able to deal with and work with me on my problem areas
she must have the intelligence to mesmerize me with her mind and tongue
she must be athletic & healthy
she must communicate with me and let me know when we have a problem and go to counseling if needed
she must never lie to me
she must be willing to fight for our marriage
she must be willing to Love me
she must be my best friend
she must dance with me
she must be willing to share her past, present, and future with me
she must pray for me daily
thankfulness
Heavenly Father, i am thankful for you every day.
I am thankful for the day and all the opportunities it presents me
I am thankful for her and how she helps me
I am thankful for my family and how they love me
I am thankful for Violet and the memories she gave me
I am thankful for the hopes and dream you give me
I am thankful for my desire to serve and follow you
I am thankful you love me enough to send your son Jesus to die for my sins so i may have everlasting joy with you