Wow, time flies and the old saying about how time moves faster as you get older is so true! I can't believe I haven't blogged since we left for the Netherland so I thought I better do a quick catch up post.
Kayla swam GREAT at Worlds but she had some stiff competition in her class so no chance for medals this time. She did swim her personal best in all but one event and came home with 2 American records! What an amazing experience it was to be swimming and supporting Team USA!
We came home just in time to get ready for back to school. Kayla started high school (9th grade) and Sam the 5th grade. Both kids are doing well in school and making new friends. Kayla is involved with the drama club and is going to work backstage at MCT's musical this year. Sam is playing 2 instruments (saxophone and piano) and auditioned for the play (cast list will be announced Nov 11).
About a month after school started, Kayla and I went to Santa Clara for another swim meet. She didn't swim as well there but it was a good experience. We go to Toronto in December for the CAN-AM meet and then I think we're home until April 2011. I can't believe how much we've traveled this year!
I apologize for not having any craftiness to share this time but hopefully I will soon!
When Kayla was born, someone sent me this poem. It was written by the mom of a special needs child. I find it a little ironic that we are currently IN Holland (also known as the Netherlands) for her to compete in the IPC Long Course World Swimming Championships. Kayla really IS taking me to Holland!
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.
*Note: I recently learned that the usage of the word "Holland" is technically incorrect as it actually describes a region in the central-western part of the Netherlands. We are in Eindhoven, Netherlands.
The athletes have been training hard! Opening ceremonies are tomorrow and the competition begins on Sunday, August 15th. Go Team USA!
