Report: Netherlands Family Meeting Day, June 2007
| It’s Saturday jJune 27, 2007 The second Dutch meetingday Triple-X Syndrome Ida and I are looking forward to it! Around 10 o’clock our families meet at the entrance of the historic open air museum in Arnhem. The first other participants arrive. The weather is (a part from a local shower of rain) fine for a day like this, cloudy and the temperature is about 68°F. We start the day at the Koffiehuis, there is room to sit down and catch up. |
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| “Our club” consists of a couple of families that also took part in the first meeting day, and a family we know from email contact. It feels good to see them again, talk to people who understand when you speak about Trisomy X. Unfortunately 4 families couldn't come, some due to illness). We think that is a pity, because we would have loved to meet them and share the day. |
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It is good to see how the girls start playing with each other almost immediately. They are attracted to my son Patrick from the start (he is 11, both mentally and physically handicapped and cannot talk) and play with him, too. Daphne and Fardau take him under their protection right away. We as parents see a strong point of similarity between our girls: the caring and social side of them. They love to be around younger or more dependant children. |
| The only “strangers” in this party are Maarten Otter and his wife and sons. Maarten is a psychiatrist and treated some girls and women with Triple-X in his practice. This made him become so interested in this syndrome, that he started a literature study. Together with Thea he gives presentations to other doctors about Triple-X. Today he has the opportunity to meet our girls, talk to their parents, and get to know all the different sides of Trisomy X. The parents were able to ask him questions too. |  |
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After we had a drink and a talk, we went exploring the museum. First we ride the tram and the tram conductor tells us all there is to see and do. After that we walked through the museum park in small groups or on their own to visit beautiful old farms, windmills and factories that were rebuild in this open air museum. It is great to walk here. We buy old fashioned candy in an old fashioned candystore and have lots of fun in the Zaanse part of the museum. In this section there are old fashioned bikes, Flying Dutchman skelters and hoops. We try everything and find that it's harder than it looks. |
| It's lots of fun for the children (and secretly the adults too) when they discover a kind of overboard bathroom. You can hear (on a tape) how a man is relieving himself rather noisy. |  |
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At lunch time we take a break, to eat pancakes or omelettes in the pancakehouse. The children are having fun on the old fashioned playground. It's too bad there are so many other people, because we can't sit together as a group. The service is not as fast as we would like and we sat longer than we wanted. We shall take that into account for the next meeting day! Point of improvement for the next year: make a reservation. :) |
| At a farm the children do the laundry the old fashioned way using a mangle, practice milking (wooden) cows etc. |  |
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Some of us visit the HollandRama, which is worth while. They take you on a trip through characteristic Holland, from the old days until the present times. Ida and I preferred to sit down on the terrace of the Koffiehuis and little by little got company from the others. The children we glad to have the opportunity to take some more rides on the tram. |
| There was a lot more to see and to do, but not enough time to see it all. We’ll so that when we visit this beautiful museum again. Today it was a great pleasure to be able to meet other families that are dealing with Trisomy-X in a relaxed atmosphere. We asked them for their opinion about this day and they we very positive. |
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| And as one mother said: if we go on meeting each other on a regular basis, our girls get the chance of meeting other girls in the same situation. Maybe now they are a little young to appreciate that, but when they grow up they probably will. On these meeting days they get to know each other and have the opportunity to stay in touch if they want to. Anyway, Ida and I are convinced that we will continue with organized meetings like this and are planning a third one next year. We welcome any suggestions for a suitable location. And of course it would be great to meet more families next year! And to all the families we met this year: Thank you very much for making this great day possible! Thea and Ida Please feel free to take a look in our photobook of the day by clicking on the small photo of the girls below. |
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