Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Prayers Needed

My best friend of many years and her family are going through a very difficult time right now. Her aunt gave birth to her 3rd child yesterday afternoon, and unfortunately they found out just hours later that the baby has Downs Syndrome. Gina is 43 years old and did not have the test done during the pregnancy. She was told there would be a 1 in 10 chance of this occurring. I am completely at a loss of words. Gina, Pete & the entire family are going through something that I cannot begin to fathom. I feel so lucky to have 2 healthy children. It really makes you stop and realize what is important in life.

Please keep this family in your prayers!

4 comments:

  1. i am very, very sorry to hear that, i know how it feels like being a mother. we will help them pray to ease what they feel right now, somehow through this they can accept(though very hard) the situation. YEs, we are very very lucky to have healthy kids somehow. Give my hugs and kisses to your friend.

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  2. I cant imagine either but downs is not the end of the world. Their child can live a happy healthy fulfilling life!! :)

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  3. As a homework assignment, you need to watch the following movies:
    "The Memory Keeper's Daughter" and "The Other Sister"

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  4. You also need to read the following poem called "Welcome to Holland"

    WELCOME TO HOLLAND

    by
    Emily Perl Kingsley.

    c1987 by Emily Perl Kingsley. All rights reserved

    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.

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