"Welcome to Holland" 6 years later

Six years ago today, I was very very pregnant with my first child. He was going to be a boy and we had had his name picked out Michael William. Michael after both of our father and William after Matt's grandfather and one of my uncles.

We had no idea that when he was born three days later that he would be a special angel sent from God, to change our lives forever.

I found this poem and thought it as very appropriate for the journey we have been on for the last 6 years

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.

Thankfulness

So I know its already the 8th of November. But I am going to try for the rest of the month and hopefully into December post something that I am thankful for and maybe even a bible verse that I have been thinking about.

So God has been really laying it on my heart that I need to rejoice in everything I do.
I follow a blog The Bolte's, and this weekend she posted about rejoice in everything you put your hand to. She quoted Deuteronomy 12:18 "You are to rejoice before the LORD your GOD in everything you put your hand to."

It really challenged me to make the choice to rejoice in everything I do. I live a very blessed life, with wonderful people in it. I need to CHOOSE to rejoice in everything I do.

I hope that whoever reads this is blessed by this verse as much as I was.

Memorial Box Monday

Here is a story that just happened today. When I was at Women of Faith a couple of weeks ago the verse that they quoted all weekend is "God can do anything you know- far more than you could imagine, or guess or request in your wildest dreams" ~ Ephesians 3:20 (The Message)

Well today I had to go to the store to pick some Mother's Day cards. This will be the first mothers day since my mom passed away. And even though I would totally and completely like to boycott sunday, I know that the first one will be the hardest. So I got mother's day cards for my step-mom from me and my kids. Well while I was there I thought why not pick up a graduation card for my step-brother who is graduating with his bachelors degree. I didn't really like any of the ones I saw so I bought one that was suitable.

I came home and had a good cry because it was a hard day. Well I had to run to a different store for a couple of things and I stopped to look at the graduation cards and lo and behold there was a graduation card with Ephesians 3:20 on it.

I don't have a memorial box yet, but when I do I will put a post it card with Ephesians 3:20 on it to always remember that God is in control and He wants to give us far more than you could ever imagine or request in your wildest dreams.

Memorial Box Monday

I have a story that just happened this weekend. I went to the Women of Faith this weekend, and I met a very incredible woman. I don't know her name or her situation but I know her heart and spirit.

She was a little older and confined to a wheelchair. Not only was she confined to a wheel chair she had no ability to use her arms or legs. But she didn't let that stop her. She pushed herself around in a electric wheelchair with just her chin. We visited a couple of times and not once did she ever not have a huge smile on her face.

God really spoke to me through this wonderful woman that I wish I would of gotten her name so I could chat with her more. But what God was speaking to my heart was that no matter what my circumstance I am blessed beyond measure.

This has been a really tough couple of months for me but God really spoke to me that if this wonderful woman can do all she does than I have no room to complain.

So I highly doubt that this woman reads my blog, but if you out there and are reading this "Thank you". And even that phrase can not even describe how blessed I am by seeing you just living your life with a smile on your face.

Memorial Box Monday on a Wednesday

This comes from A Place called Simplicity and it helps us remember what God has done for us in our lives.

This is my first ever memorial box entry and I hope I can add more and more as I remember what God has done in my life.

This story is very recent. So Natalie just turned three and all of her friends are potty training. I just haven't had the energy to help learn how to potty train so I silently asked God to make this easy. So one day when I was dropping her off at the babysitter's I said that I was trying to potty train her and she was doing ok, but not being very consistent with it. The babysitter said that was fine, and I went off to work.

When I picked her up I was just chatting with the babysitter and asked how her day went. She said that it went okay and that Natalie would go on the potty if you gave her a sticker. Natalie has only had 2 accidents since then.

Thank you God for making this such an easy transition and that I now have only one child in diapers,

If you want to participate in Memorial Box, A Place Called Simplicity

Updates

Well here we are again three months (actually longer than that) with no update.

Since I last blogged Natalie turned three. We celebrated her birthday at a party place and it was really nice as I didn't have to do anything but show up and enjoy my time. Natalie enjoyed herself.

Michael has started to cruise more and more. During therapy he will walk with his walker as many as 75 steps without stopping. I'll have to take a picture of him and the huge smile he gets. He also has (we think) graduated from his foot braces and into just regular shoes. Its a pair of hightops and he really likes them.

Matt and I went away for the first time time just the two of us but our timing was off as Natalie caught the stomach flu the day we left so we had to cut our trip short to come home and take care of sick kids and then both Matt and I caught it. Oh well, we will try again soon.

Michael is about 4 weeks away from being done with preschool and will be in full day kindergarten in the fall. We are very blessed to be able to keep his teacher for at least another year. Michael and her just have a bond that you can't explain. Its fun to see how well he is doing in school.

Well thats about it from the Slusher family. Hope you all are doing good.

Welcome to Holland

Welcome to Holland
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 awhile 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, very lovely things... about Holland.


(I didn't write this, I found it on another blog and it definitely describes my life sometimes)

A very sad time

As most of my reader's know (all like 5 of you) my mom passed away on December 6, 2009. I am still in a state of shock as her passing was very very unexpected.




This is a picture taken of her at my brother Mike's wedding in June of 2007.

I miss her so much and will probably for the rest of my life.

So in loving memory of my wonderful mother Mary Anne Brown 12/26/46 to 12/06/09

Pictures

So obviously I didn't post everyday in October. I didn't even post once in October. I can't believe that its already November. October flew by.

On my last post my father requested pictures so here is a post of some pics that we took recently.

Here is Michael getting on the bus for school. He really does like to ride the bus.


This is Michael's halloween costume. Our cute Super Mario


Here he is with his hat on. It didn't last very long as Michael is not a big fan of things on his head



Here is a picture of me and the kids right before I got Natalie dressed to go trick or treating.


Here is Natalie as a pirate princess


So there is some pictures. I will TRY to update more. We'll see how long that lasts

Update on us

So wow, I can't believe its been over 3 months since I updated. Thats craziness.

Alot of stuff has happened. Well maybe not alot of stuff but we have kept pretty busy.

Michael started his second year of preschool this year. It's been a little bit of a struggle as he is adjusting to a new teacher.

He got a walker and is going to start using it in therapy today. I'll update with pictures after therapy.

Natalie is doing pretty good. She is almost 2 1/2 and is talking up a storm. My mom came and visited this weekend and its fun to see Natalie want to follow my mom everywhere she went.

My plan is to start posting everyday in October. Starting next thursday I hope to blog once a day.

All right its time to go get ready to pick Michael up from school and go to his Speech and Occupational therapy appointment.

Random Sunday Thoughts

I have so much on my mind right now I don't even know where to begin.

Michael started wanting to cruise along furniture this week. I am so excited but at the same time he is SOOOOOOOO TALLLLLLLLLLLLL that I know have to be extra careful about what is on the island and table and stove. While I am typing this he stood up to the stove. Which is thankfully not on so he didn't hurt himself at all.

In talking with a girl I know, she let it all out about the person she lives with is very abusive and how she is tired of being grown up. It has totally made my heart heavy the whole entire day and even now my heart hurts for her because at her age she needs to be able to be a kid and not be an adult.

I have been following a blog for a couple of months. Off and on but not very consistently but on and off but on monday afternoon it turned out that this blog was all fake and the person writing it made it all up and then quickly decided to delete it all. This is not the first time I have encountered fake blogs but one of my biggest pet peeves is people who lie and i just don't understand people who lie. I personally believe that it takes so much energy to lie and to keep the lie straight and not contradict yourself.

I know that this doesn't make any sense but I just wanted to let it all out. Bob Erler came and spoke at church today. He is called the "Catch Me Killer". He killed a woman in the early 1960's and was sentenced to 99 1/2 years in prison. He has an amazing testimony about how God saved him and how he was released from jail. Its always amazing to me to see how God uses different people different ways and how he always meets us just where we are and no matter how far away we feel from Him, He is always right there waiting for us to come back to him.

I hope that this finds you all well and I hope it makes some sort of sense.

Not Me! Monday

Go on over to MckMama's blog to join in on the fun.

These are the things I did NOT DO lately

~On Saturday at work (I work in the inventory control department of an online warehouse) while training, I did not make a bet with a co-worker about what a product description was. I did not win the bet.

~This past week while grocery shopping with Natalie I did not get complimented on my cart driving skills while driving one of these


The person who did the complimenting wasn't a little bit envious that I had no problem pushing this around.

~And while driving said cart around with Natalie in it, She DID NOT try to shop lift 4 candies while waiting to check out. The bagger didn't bring these to my attention and I WAS NOT totally embarrassed about this.

I hope that you have not enjoyed these Not ME!'s and if you want to join in on the fun hop on over to MckMama's Blog and join in on the fun.

Please Pray

I don't know how many people read my blog, but for how many are out there I am going to ask for prayer. I have been following a couple of other blogs for a while now, one for almost a year and the other one just since this fall. Today both families need prayer

First off is MckMama and her baby boy Stellan. When MckMama was pregnant with Stellan they found that baby Stellan had a heart condition. Asking for lots of prayer on her blog Stellan was born in October a perfect and healthy newborn. Although right after Christmas he did struggle with RSV, he has been perfectly healthy since he was born with no sign of trouble with his heart. Until this weekend, yesterday afternoon MckMama took him to the ER. They have now been admitted and Stellan is in the PICU. Please pray for this family

Also is the Bolte family. After losing two children shortly after birth, they are now expecting their fifth child, a baby girl. Kristy had an ultrasound today and the doctor was a little concerned about the baby's head growth. Please just pray for this wonderful family and that God's will is done and they feel His peace that surpasses all understanding.

Thank you so much.


P.S. If you read this blog and are so inclined to add the information for MckMama and Stellan on your blog, and would like to add it a growing list of blogs that are asking for prayer for this sweet famil please go to Newly Wed, Newly Bred! and your blog to the blog roll

5 Things

Lucky you! I saw this on my cousin Jill's (she is actually married to my cousin George) blog and wanted her to make me something bad enough to post the same offer here. Here's how it works!
The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you. This offer does, however, have some restrictions and limitations...
1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!
2. What I create will be just for you.
3. It'll be done this year.
4. You will have no clue what it's going to be. It may be a story. It may be poetry or maybe even some creation I haven't even invented yet (but Heaven knows it will most likely be totally fabulous and creative... :). I may draw or paint something. I may bake you something and mail it to you. Who knows? Not you, that's for sure! (I know you're all hoping I'll paint you a picture or write you a poem. Too bad... you can't make requests!)
5. I reserve the right to do something extremely strange. (Not intentionally strange, but you may label it that way)
The catch? Oh, the catch is that you must re-post this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog. The first 5 people to do so (and leave a comment telling me they did) win a FAB-U-LOUS homemade gift by me! (If you don't have a blog, you can still leave a comment and win... we'll work something out. Maybe you'll just have to give all 5 of your homemade gifts to me! Sounds fair, right?)
Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it!

Thankful Thursday

I got this idea from A Place called Simplicity and even though my last Thankful Thursday was a month ago I decided to try and write again.

I am very thankful for

1) God and the close personal relationship He desires with us.

2) I am thankful that even though the economy is hard my husband's job has not been affected. I got a phone call today telling me that there is not enough work for me this weekend so please don't come in. Even without my small income I still feel blessed beyond measure in this hard economic time.

3) I am thankful for all the things that we in America take for granted. Like running water, electricity and especially the internet. Even though I am not addicted to Blogging, I am addicted to reading other people's blogs and to F@cebook.

4) I am definitely thankful for antibiotics as Natalie had pneumonia two weeks ago and even though she was really sick she is SO much better now.

5) I am thankful for all the people God has put in my life recently. I am blessed beyond measure with the friendships God has blessed me with.

I hope you all have a Thankful Thursday.

Wordless Wednesday

Natalie riding her horse that Santa brought her. She still loves that horse.



This is Michael who had pulled himself up. He has come so far since he started school in August. Praise the Lord.

Thankful Thursday

So I'm sorry that I haven't been blogging like I usually do, life has been crazy lately. For almost 6 months I have been following my charming kids and almost a month ago on her twitter she had posted about this family in Colorado with ten kids lost their house to a fire. You can read their story here a place called simplicity. Anyway even after this devastating house fire where they lost almost everything the mom Linn blogs every Thursday about what she is thankful for. I have decided that I am going to try to blog about what I am thankful for and hopefully get to it every week.

So here goes
I am so thankful that God sent his son Jesus to die for our sins and all we have to do it accept His gift of grace and mercy.

I am thankful to live in America where I can go and worship and meet with friends to do a bible study and not be persecuted for it.

I am thankful for my family, my hubby and my two wonderful children.

I am thankful that I do have wonderful friends who have been and are there for me whenever I need them.

That's all I can think of at the moment.

Hope life is finding you well

Not Me, Monday!

Here we are again for a Not Me, Monday

I am not nervous about interviewing a respite worker for Michael. She is not coming to the house in like 30 minutes and I am not blogging about it instead of picking up the house.

I did not bend down to get something off of the floor at work on Saturday, just to have my pants rip. I did not think it was that big deal when I bent down again and it ripped even more. I did not have to run to Walmart at 7am in the morning and did not buy a new pair of pants without even trying them on because the dressing rooms are not open that early in the morning. Nope, Not Me. I would never do that

I did not go down to my sisters last weekend just to leave my tennis shoes there just to come back home and have to go out and buy some more. I did not get a really good deal on the shoes so much so that I decided to buy another pair. I did not get both pairs for twenty dollars less then I would usually spend on one pair.

On my way to work on Saturday I did not stop at Circle K and I did not tell the girls working that I was hoping to get laid off. They didn't laugh at me at ALL.
(BTW in all seriousness I did not get laid off, and have been blessed with my job)

I hope you all enjoy these Not Me, Mondays! and go on over to www.mycharmingkids.net to join in on the fun.

2009

I can't believe its already 2009. Life flies when you're having fun. Christmas at our house was fun. We slept in late (probably the last year we will be able to do that) and opened presents. Matt wasn't feeling well so Natalie and I went over to my friends house by ourselves. Michael stayed home with his dad.

I have been loving having Michael home during winter break. He has just made huge developmental advancements in the last couple of months. He is now willingly pulling himself to a standing position and even letting go some and trying to gain his balance. He has had multiple ear infections these last couple of months and so they are putting tubes in on Tuesday, January 6. And I hope that after the surgery when he is done recovering he will get a better sense of balance.

Natalie is just being a typical almost 2 year old. She loves going anywhere anybody else is going, is learning new words every week. She will eat almost anything you give her and LOVES M&M's. Her favorite word is please and she can sign and say it at the same time.

Here are a couple of pictures from our Christmas fun.

This is Michael when we were at Christmas with Matt's parents.


Here is Natalie in her "diva" glasses that she got from Santa.


I hope everyone had a wonderful and safe holiday season. My prayer for you is that you will see God's blessing in your life and that you will rejoice always.

Not Me, Monday!

Once again here are the things I DID NOT DO this week

~I did not wait until the last day of two promotions to buy christmas presents for people. I am always on top of everything and NEVER have to go out and buy things at the last minute.

~When my dear hubby went out last night to see "The Punisher" I did not make him go get my Olive Garden's Zuppa Toscana soup. Let me tell you it wasnt as good as I had been craving.

~I did not forget up until 4 hours before that Michael had an IEP meeting at school last monday. I did NOT have to scramble to find someone to watch the kids during the meeting.

~Hubby did not put Natalie in the car when she was just dressed in a diaper to go pick Michael from school. Again Hubby always dresses our kids in the outfits that I put out for him.

I hope you guys enjoy this free therapy every week and go on over to MckMama's blog at www.mycharmingkids.net to join in on the fun