A good reminder

You know the saying 'the grass is always greener on the other side?'  I was reminded of that today.  My sister sent me a bunch of links to other blogs that she reads one day.  I started to slowly check them out.  It's hard for me to jump right in and start following a blog.  I have to go back in the archives and read back a ways until I feel like I've gotten to know them a little bit.  One of the links she gave me was this one about a woman who has triplets.  I went to check her blog today and she had a post titled Holland.  Her mom had given her this article soon after they knew there were having triplets and then someone recently emailed it to her again.  The article itself isn't about multiples but rather I felt it was about finding that contentment in what is thrown your way.  First here is the article 

WELCOME TO HOLLAND

by Emily Perl Kingsley


I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with 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.

This was such a good reminder to be happy and content where I am at.  I am a stay at home mom.  I have 4 kids (3 of which are in school full time), I watch my niece every day and I love it!  I love seeing Micah and Lucy play and learn and grow together.  But sometimes the grass seems greener on the other side.  Like my life is Holland, and  I'm longing for Italy.  I don't know exactly what about Italy it is I'm longing for.  Maybe Kid free days, or maybe a bigger house, or whatever.  I'm not saying that I don't love being a mom or that I don't love being home with them.  It the hard days that are trying and I need to find my contentment in where I'm at.  God has placed me here in this season of life at this time for a reason.  Otherwise I miss the beauty of where I am at right now.  1 Thessalonians 5:18 says "Give thank in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."  (emphasis mine) I think that God's will for us is to be thankful for where ever we are and not let our longing feeling of discontentment take over.