The Hixson Family

Monday, May 19, 2008

good monday morning!

I wanted to share this little story on my blog about having a child with special needs. We have had the wonderful experience to meet some amazing families that have walked or are walking through similar circumstances as we are with our sweet Hopie.

"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 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 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.

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Where has the week gone?

Pete and I were eating breakfast trying to figure out how this week flew by so quickly....Below is a picture of our new "pet" in the Hixson household.....the easiest kind to have. Our fish, Shannon, joined our family on Wednesday. We are just trying to hold the girls off a little longer for a puppy! I'm a bit selfish and not ready to "train"another baby! I'm getting closer though to wanting one.

Addie had her last day of school this week and they had a "Celebrate America" party and cute little parade. We were finally able to meet her "boyfriend" or should I say, one of her boyfriends!

Hopie had field day at her school on Friday and we had a great time flying kites and playing with bubbles. Only one more week of school left!!!!!

We are very excited about the possibility of Hope starting a new private school next year. We started the application process and are praying that it all works out for next school year.

Pete and the men from VL went on a golf trip Thursday and Friday. Pete's team won again (2nd year in a row) I think he strategically picks his team for this event each year! Our soon to be cousin is a fantastic golfer and believe it or not, he was on Pete's team!

We are counting down to the start of summer around here and looking forward to spending lots of time at our family hideaway in Florida and some other things we have planned!

Thursday, May 15, 2008

A few more picts from Hope's party...

Thanks to my sweet friend, Sarah, we have tons of great picts from the party! Too many to pick from. I wanted to post a few more before we move on to the next thing...end of the year school parties and the start of SUMMER!!! My big girl loved her party!

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Cousins...

Just missing Carson......he went racin'

So Blessed....

Today has been a fantastic mother's day! I feel so blessed to have such a sweet husband and 2 little girls. It was nice to have a lovely brunch with my mother and also to spend some relaxing time with Pete's mother today as well! Happy Mother's Day to all the mommies and goodnight!

Day on the lake!

On Saturday we decided to have a nice family day on the lake! We rented a pontoon boat up at Red Top Mountain and spent the day on the lake! The water was still really cold, but it didn't stop Pete from jumping in and swimming for a while. The girls and I just watched!

Of course our day did come along with its own share of drama- that the church even knows about now because Pete told on himself!!

The boat was due back at 3:30 and around 3:15 we started heading back to where we thought the marina was. Well, we were lost! An hour and 15 minutes later we found it! Good times...now we are just dealing with someone in the family with a little sunburn!