Today I am blogging a post I saw on Facebook this weekend during Rare Disease Day on February 29,2020. It is an analogy of how chronic illness changes your life what we planned and that it is still good. This was written about the changes in life having a baby brings, but in many ways our lives, dreams and plans are more disrupted with chronic illnesses.

rarediseaseday2020 #rdd2020 #mastocytosis #MCAS

When you’re going to have a baby, it’s like you’re planning a vacation to Italy. You’re all excited. You get a whole bunch of guidebooks, you learn a few phrases so you can get around, and then it comes time to pack your bags and head for the airport.
Only when you land, the stewardess says, ‘WELCOME TO HOLLAND.”
You look at one another in disbelief and shock, saying, “HOLLAND? WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? I SIGNED UP FOR ITALY.”
But they explain that there’s been a change of plan, that you’ve landed in Holland and there you must stay.
“BUT I DON’T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT HOLLAND!” you say. ‘I DON’T WANT TO STAY!”
But stay you do. You go out and buy some new guidebooks, you learn some new phrases, and you meet people you never knew existed. The important thing is that you are not in a bad place filled with despair. You’re simply in a different place than you had planned. It’s slower paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy, but after you’ve been there a little while and you have a chance to catch your breath, you begin to discover that Holland has windmills. Holland has tulips. Holland has Rembrandts.
But everyone else you know is busy coming and going from Italy. They’re all bragging about what a great time they had there, and for the rest of your life, you’ll say, “YES, THAT’S WHAT I HAD PLANNED.”
The pain of that will never go away. You have to accept that pain, because the loss of that dream, the loss of that plan, is a very, very significant loss. But if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn’t get to go to Italy, you will never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things about Holland.

And Holland has been more than ok. 💕

Welcome to Holland
by Emily Perl Kingsley

I know in my own journey with chronic illness, the big key towards living a full, joyful and grateful life was embracing the new normal in life that God has sovereignly ordained. He has used living a new and different life to grow my faith and confidence in Him and His goodness. I am learning to appreciated that which is around me rather than the places I will never go or things not likely to ever do. The scenery on this journey, while different than I expected, is still captivating and lovely when I look through the lens of God’s sovereign, sustaining grace.

Wherever you thought you would be compared to where you are now, remember He is faithful, sovereign, good and wise and His desires for us is our eternal good and His glory by living our lives wherever He has led us.

The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O LORD, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of your hands. – Psalm 138:8

Blessings,

Deb