The day after
he was born:
I wanted to
share an e-mail that Vernon had sent out to one of his friends. It sums up very
nicely how we both feel about this unexpected situation:
Thank you for
your response, thoughts and prayers. Reflecting on my life so far, I can
immediately recollect dozens of experiences that God has used to help me to prepare
for this specific road ahead. Casie and I are fine with the diagnosis-we feel
privileged that we have been selected to take on this challenge and that God
trusts us enough to care for this child. We would rather be the parents of a
Down's child than, say, an 18 year old single mother who may not have the
resources to provide for the child or another couple who rejects their child
because of this diagnosis. Whether Vollen is with us for only a few days or 56
years, I am confident that our life will be more fulfilling and rewarding
because of this experience and with his presence in our lives. He is a gift to
us greater than any other.
Another one
of his friends had written us this nice story we also wanted to share:
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 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 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 never would 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
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 go to Italy, you may never be
free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things about Holland.
©1987 by
Emily Perl Kingsley. All rights reserved
I miss
holding my new baby and this whole experience is so different than our first.
In total I
don't think Vernon and I have held him more than an hour each. He was in the
NICU overnight on some oxygen and monitors for his lungs and heart.
He is resting
peacefully at Bergan and had the EKG and ultrasound done on his heart. We have
no results as of yet. Vernon went down there to be with him and try to get some
skin on skin and snuggle time in with him. He will have to stay there overnight
and depending on the results he could be released back here tomorrow and then
we would be here a couple more days. Otherwise, if he has to stay at Bergan,
then I will be released tomorrow and we can go visit him there.
One of the
nurses was shielding his eyes from the bright lights an he was opening them. I
haven't even seen his eyes open for more than a couple of seconds. We are
praying that everything turns out good with the results, but he still has rapid
breathing and they need to get that all figured out. Thanks again for all of your thoughts, prayers, calls, and e-mails for our baby boy. We know that is it difficult for people to know what to say. It is hard for us too, but we want to let everyone know that we understand and that it will hopefully get easier for everyone to talk openly about. This is all new to all of us and we will all get through it one day at a time together!
Stay tuned tomorrow for Part 3!
Casie
and this unspeakable gift of motherhood...
it's an honor. a dream. and not documenting it...capturing every
moment...bottling it up to save forever...would be irresponsible. ~ Kelle
Hampton
No comments:
Post a Comment