Welcome to Holland

by Emily Perl Kingsley

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.

What our clients are saying

“We accessed Angie Reeder’s professional support this past summer after having some concerns with our child’s literacy development. She came into our home, accommodating our work and family schedule. Angie spent one on one time with our child. She was very easy to work with and created a very warm and comfortable atmosphere. Our child opened up right away with her. Angie provided us with basic but meaningful strategies. She gave us time to ask questions and provide important information about our child. After our session, I had more questions and a request to have her share some information with our school. She has been extremely patient and more than willing to support our child as best she can. I feel that she has gone out of her way to help support our child’s success, which we are extremely grateful for. As time goes on I will likely schedule more time with Angie due to the ease of her coming into our home and the knowledge and insight she is able to provide. It is evident that Angie is passionate about her work.”

Kyra-Lee

“Angie is friendly and professional. Angie did a home assessment with our son who tends to be a little shy but he LOVED her. We found Angie warm and she was great with our son! She educated us and gave us tips to help expand our son’s vocabulary and optimize his learning. Right now, further sessions are not required but we easily could have been told otherwise. Angie is honest and trusting and puts the child’s needs first rather than her own potential to benefit. I would recommend Wildflower Children’s Therapy to everyone!!”

Jenna Leigh

“We very much enjoyed working with Angie, we both learned so much in a short period of time. I appreciated Angie’s personalized approach and support for the parents. My son has made a ton of progress since we last seen her. Thanks to all of Angie’s support and advice, we were able to continue to help our son and use those same techniques with our younger son.”

Tamara

“Angie provided exceptional service. She went above and beyond for our family. Our kids connected well with her and benefitted from the sessions.”

Jenna

“Angie worked with my daughter and I am really happy with her services, she was very approachable and she showed real interest on my daughter’s improve and progress. I would recommend her anytime, thanks for your help!”

Diego

“Angie is an outstanding speech pathologist. She handles my son pretty well and she knows how to keep his interest going during their session (which is very hard because my son’s span of interest is limited). She is organized and works great with children. She knows what she is doing and always updates me with our next goal. She sees to it that everyone who is involved with my sons development are working together towards the same goal.”

Charo