~Turning the BIG 2~

Proud Daddy
Seeing my Baby for the first time...Couldn't believe we had a BOY...

Jaden Kyler McBride

3-18-2008

6lbs 15oz 19inches

~Happy 2nd Birthday Jaden~

Daddy and Mommy love you BIG BuNcHeS!!!!!!!!

Jaden's 2nd Birthday is here, It makes us so happy and sad all at the same time, if that's even possible... Oh how we wanted all these goals for him before his second Birthday Rolling Over, Sitting Up, Standing, Walking, and all the little but oh so big things that a normal 2 year old can do...

We are facing yet another brain surgery...just found out on Monday, the brain cyst on the Brain stem is not draining properly with the new shunt that was placed back in Nov....So Jaden's 2nd year of life will be starting with another MAJOR SURGERY....just trusting the Lord with it all...

As I was sharing all these emotions with my dear Friend Allison" Jaden's speech therapist" she shared this poem with me the other day... I absolutely cannot begin to describe how this poem made me feel as I was reading it word for word it's exactly what has happened to James and I...

~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 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 Rembrandt's. 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.

by ~ Emily Perl Kingsley~