TechnoStampers Sketch #44

Stamps: Whipper Snapper Wintertime Friends 2; Sentiment from SU! Season of Joy set
Paper: Ballet Blue; Pretty in Pink; White
Ink: Memento Black; Ballet Blue; Bashful Blue; Copics
Other: Dazzling Diamonds Glitter; Liquid Applique; Pink and Blue Organdy Ribbons
Tag Measures 5.5 x 4.25

I haven't been feeling well this weekend. But I scooted down to my craft room for an hour to make this giant tag for Mary Jo's Monday's Sketch Challenge.

This week it wasn't so much a sketch as a giant tag. I was going to make this a tag shaped card...but decided to keep a tag a tag and added the ribbon. I haven't used liquid applique in years...there is a reason for that...I like the way it looks on other peoples projects but not so much on mine. I don't like the "not totally white" look to it. And I feel like it just looks messy. Immediately after heating it I dumped some glitter on it to help it...but I still don't like it. I don't think you will see a lot of liquid applique in future posts here. After I had the tag completed, I got my heat gun and tried to puff the the liquid applique more...but I did nothing but start to curl my organdy ribbon. It worked...so I heated the rest of the bow and left it!
Even with the liquid applique, isn't this snowman image C-U-T-E?! I just love Whipper Snapper images!! Not to mention that they are fun for coloring with the copic markers. lots of space for blending. ;)

I have had several people comment or email me about how quickly I get the TechnoStamper challenges done. Ha! right! I don't do anything right away...I am a terrible procrastinator! I have these done on Mondays because I have the sketch for several weeks. When MJ first started doing her sketch challenges on her blog she was looking for people to be part of her sketch team. So that way when she put her sketch challenge up , she would also put up links to our cards to get the juices going for those that needed a bit of inspiration to participate. But with schedules, or whatever, she doesn't do it that way anymore. Regardless, there is a group of us that get the sketches early. No way do I run down at 11pm on Sunday and whip up a card! LOL! If you know me at all, you know how funny that is! Sometimes I am still making the card at 11 pm on Sunday night...but not because I just got the sketch! LOL!

Finally, I want to wish my little Declan a Happy 12th Birthday!
I can't believe that it has been 12 years since I became a mom. I can't believe that next year I will be a mom to a teenager! YIKES. That makes me feel old. I still remember holding Declan in the hospital and rubbing his tiny hand and being amazed at how soft his skin was. I remember how yummy he smelled. How small his little bottom was. How perfect he was. I remember looking at my husband holding him and just beaming. Then, I remember the midwife telling me that he had creases in his hands. huh?! Of course he might be a little wrinkly, he was just in fluid for 37 weeks! "These are different", she said. She was referring to one deep crease that runs straight across each palm. (sometimes referred to as simian crease) This is usually an indicator of Down Syndrome. I was 21 years old at the time (so I knew it all!) and figured she was just being overly cautious. He didn't look like he had DS. Even the geneticists that came over from Boston Children's Hospital couldn't give a for sure yes by his physical attributes and measurements. We had to wait 48 hours for the genetic test to be done. Jeez, that was a LONG 48 hours. But I remember never crying. I just knew that he was my perfect baby, no matter what.
I did cry eventually. When these things happen we have to mourn the child that we thought would be. At some point someone gave me this essay. It is a great description of how sometimes things aren't what we thought they would be...but still just as wonderful.

WELCOME TO HOLLAND

by Emily Perl Kingsly

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, 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.

Some days Declan can be quite a challenge. But he still is my perfect boy.

Have a Blessed Monday!