Marchese Family: Our Horoscope

Gavin was born in January 2010, a seemingly healthy 6+ pound baby boy. He took us by surprise a bit, as we had only been on the "waiting list" for 2 weeks! Gavin had rough beginnings- formula allergies, chronic fussiness, frequent ear infections, and finally diagnoses: Cerebral Palsy, Eosinophilic Esophagitis, and severe Sensory Processing Disorder. You'd never know these days! He's symptom free of CP and in remission of EoE! His SPD continues to give us a wild ride, but there's no sweeter boy than mine to make the journey with!

Special Needs Thoughts...

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.

-Emily Perl Kinglsey

Monday, January 12, 2009

Our Horoscope

I found our horoscope online, thought I'd share:

Leo Mom & Sagittarius Baby

Put you and your Sagittarius baby together, and what do you get? Instant party! This cheerful and active child will resonate to your fiery constitution, and you'll be inspired by baby's seemingly boundless energy. You two will be double-daring each other the moment you step into a Mommy & Me class. Before you get to that stage, you'll savor your baby's infancy. The Sagittarius sense of humor develops almost immediately, so you can hone your silly sense of bathroom humor during diaper changes -- or get your money's worth making funny faces in a photo booth. What could put a strain on this relationship is your trying to tie Sagittarius down. We know you can't get enough of your BFF baby, but it would be unnatural if Sagittarius didn't have a posse of friends and admirers. You'll also have to get used to sharing your child with preschool teachers and babysitters who feed your child's intellectual curiosity. Don't worry, -- you're still number one! And you'll stay that way if you balance your TLC with very long apron strings.

post signature