New! — Printable Holland Poem

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. Whether you frame it, fold it into a wallet, or simply tape it to the wall, the printable Holland poem remains a lifeline. It validates the loss without abandoning the hope. And sometimes, on the hardest days, that is exactly the map a parent needs.

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.

Then, the plane lands. The flight attendant announces: "Welcome to Holland." printable holland poem

When you’re going to have a baby, it’s like planning a fabulous vacation trip – to Italy. You buy a bunch of guidebooks and make wonderful plans. The Coliseum. Michelangelo’s David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It’s all very exciting.

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.” But… if you spend your life mourning the

For decades, parents receiving a life-altering diagnosis for their child have been handed a single piece of paper. On it is a short, allegorical poem titled "Welcome to Holland." Despite the rise of digital media, searches for a "printable Holland poem" remain incredibly high—a testament to its enduring role as a tangible source of comfort in moments of crisis. What is the "Welcome to Holland" Poem? Written by Emily Perl Kingsley in 1987, the piece uses a powerful metaphor. Kingsley, whose son has Down syndrome, compares the experience of planning for a child to meticulously planning a trip to Italy —you learn the language, study the maps, and dream of the Colosseum.

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… And sometimes, on the hardest days, that is

So you must go out and buy new guidebooks. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.