Welcome to Holland

I remember reading this Poem whilst in hospital, sitting by my babies humidicrib. It is in a special diary, titled Premature Baby Diary, One Day at a time, This diary was given to me as a gift and is one of the best gifts i have ever been given, and i would have been lost without it. The Diary is filled with stories of other premature babies journeys and also has pages to fill in with all the dramas that have happened in the babies day and believe me sometimes alot can happen in a day.
This poem I have reread so many times and was so appropriate at the time, I'm not sure of the authors name but it was obviously written by a parent going thru the same experience.

Welcome to Holland - Author Unknown

When u are going to have a baby,
its like planning a fabulous trip to Italy.
You buy a bunch of guide books and make wonderful plans.
The Colosseum, Michaelangelo's David, the gondolas in Venice.
You may even learn 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 flight attendant comes and says, "Welcome to Holland"
"Holland"? you say, "What do u mean Holland"?
I signed up for Italy.
But there's been a change of 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 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 a different place.
It's slower-paced than Italy.
Less flashy than Italy.
But after you've been there for a while and catch your breathe, you look around
and notice that Holland has windmills,
Holland has tulips,
Holland even had Rembrandts.
But everyone you know is coming and going from Italy.
And they're bragging about what a wonderful time they had there.
For the rest of your life you will say,
"Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. thats what I had planned"
And the pain of that will never, ever go away because the loss of a dream is a very significant loss
But if u 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