disclaimer: If you have your magnified glass out and are looking through all of the piles and stacks that are "for sale" do not be alarmed or offended if an item that you once gave or owned is in these said piles. I cleaned and cleared and asked a series of questions. If the correct answer was not given to every question the item was deemed "not able to move to greenfield". If your feeling are still hurt then go ahead and get 7000 square feet of stuff (4500 of house and at least 2500 of attic and basement!) and fit it in a 2000 square foot house! I am saving them the agony of realizing that it will not all fit!!!! If we would have kept it all there would have no room for you to come and visit. And if you still feel some kind of attachment to the items there is a good chance that you could visit Twice as Nice, Goodwill or the Crisis pregnancy Center and get it all back!!! (but then your kids will do the same thing to all of your stuff before you know it...it is a vicious cycle!)
who wouldn't want to stop and see??
room #1
Room #2...everything you see is for sale. If it is on the walls, the tables or the floor it is for sale!!
Rooms #3 & #4 not pictured!!!
Keeping the kids entertained...every dumpster needs a good cleaning!
the volunteer army... Lori, Bridget and Claire
The bathroom after scrapping and before plaster!
Grandpa & Olivia painting
Jed & uncle Marc refinishing floors!
The help is going crazy!!!
To much work...not enough fun!!!
Jed & uncle Marc refinishing floors!The help is going crazy!!!To much work...not enough fun!!! Ok... I am back.. not quite back to the land of the living as I am soooo tired, but back! It has been a CRAZY week! Where do I start?
We have been busy at mom and dads house with cleaning, painting, refinishing floors and holding the worlds largest moving sale ever! We did AWESOME and were very successful at moving out allot of “treasures”! Today we have been sorting and delivering: some to consignment, some to goodwill and some to the crisis pregnancy center! I feel so great to have gotten rid of so much! I feel so free!
Mid week we had a terrible storm pass through Freeport. The lighting was incredible and the thunder down right scary! Jed was out of town for 4 days and of course that is when the lighting and thunder come crashing in. We lost power for about 40 hours.... never a dull moment. Luckily, it was just my area here in town (you are surprised right. I am not usually in the bottom percentages!) Mom and dad had power so we just camped out!
We are slowly starting to get back into the normal routines here. School is starting in just a few short weeks. Is that possible? Madison is still really struggling with bowel recognition. Some days we will catch something when I have her sit on the potty but other then that we are always having accidents. She is no where near ready for underwear. It is very frustrating as we will be 5 weeks post-op on Thursday. Madison has her follow up appointment on Thursday in Cincinnati so the two of us will be heading out on Wednesday night. It will be along few days in the car but it will be fun to have time with her. She is a great traveler! We have made hotel reservations near a huge scrapbook store so we are planning on getting all of the stuff to make her birthday invites! She is having a very special birthday party and we need very specific items for the invites! We will also be going to get all of her school supplies! As you can imagine she is very excited about all of that as well!
Unfortunately, we think that the C-diff may be returning. The last few days I have seen some signs that alarmed me and then today some definite warning flags went up. She has been off the anti-biotics for 8 days now. Dr. Levitt has ordered a stool sample and has started her back on antibiotics as a precaution until the sample comes back. If it is negative we will just stop the meds. I had a feeling that he would treat aggressively as it is so dangerous. We will have to wait about 3 days once the sample is collected to get any answers. I am hoping that we can have those by the time we meet with him on Thursday.
I talked in length with Madison's teacher this morning. As the days tick by and we get closer to school starting my discouragement rises. I was so hopeful that things would have worked themselves out by now and that Madison would be able to be in undies and doing great. For some reason that is not where we are at. I am struggling to except that but am trying to stay positive and keep believing that none of this is a surprise to the Lord. Why Madison has to struggle so much will be a question I will have to deal with. Mrs. Hollis was great and is so understanding of all that Madison is going through. The school is willing to work with me as much as possible to make this as easy for Madison as possible. If the C-diff has returned I do not believe that enemas will even be an option right now. I talked with Miriam a little tonight and she implied that enemas would not be effective with the infection and antibiotics. Dr. Levitt has said that if by school we are no controlling her bowels that we would began the enema program for 3 months. My heart aches to think of that possibility. I will continue to trust his judgment as I feel like he has always done what was in her best interest. It is hard to weigh all of the options. The advantages of not doing enemas are that there would be no daily agony. It is so miserable to administer the enemas and so devastating for Mads. The downside of not doing them is that there is always the possibility that there could be teasing and joking that Madison is the only one that wears diapers. She has become immune to her own odor and it makes it difficult as she is not aware of an accident until I smell it. My heart breaks to think of what kids could say that would hurt or embarrass her.
So allot will be determined in the week ahead. Is there a new infection? Will she start school or will she be back in isolation? Will we start enemas? Is there still strong belief that bowel recognition is possible?
So much to take in and process. I broke down today for the first time in awhile... (Sorry Connie that you had to be there for that!) It is so hard. I try to be strong and some days I do really good, or at least do really good acting the part! Today has been hard. So we will start over tomorrow and pray for the strength to get through that day. I need to stop looking ahead as that gets to overwhelming. So here we are again, smack dab in the middle of a situation where we have to chose to have faith and believe that the Lord has an amazing plan for Madison's life, no matter how difficult.
Thanks so much for your continued prayers!! we all need them!
I will keep you posted!
Nikki
We have been busy at mom and dads house with cleaning, painting, refinishing floors and holding the worlds largest moving sale ever! We did AWESOME and were very successful at moving out allot of “treasures”! Today we have been sorting and delivering: some to consignment, some to goodwill and some to the crisis pregnancy center! I feel so great to have gotten rid of so much! I feel so free!
Mid week we had a terrible storm pass through Freeport. The lighting was incredible and the thunder down right scary! Jed was out of town for 4 days and of course that is when the lighting and thunder come crashing in. We lost power for about 40 hours.... never a dull moment. Luckily, it was just my area here in town (you are surprised right. I am not usually in the bottom percentages!) Mom and dad had power so we just camped out!
We are slowly starting to get back into the normal routines here. School is starting in just a few short weeks. Is that possible? Madison is still really struggling with bowel recognition. Some days we will catch something when I have her sit on the potty but other then that we are always having accidents. She is no where near ready for underwear. It is very frustrating as we will be 5 weeks post-op on Thursday. Madison has her follow up appointment on Thursday in Cincinnati so the two of us will be heading out on Wednesday night. It will be along few days in the car but it will be fun to have time with her. She is a great traveler! We have made hotel reservations near a huge scrapbook store so we are planning on getting all of the stuff to make her birthday invites! She is having a very special birthday party and we need very specific items for the invites! We will also be going to get all of her school supplies! As you can imagine she is very excited about all of that as well!
Unfortunately, we think that the C-diff may be returning. The last few days I have seen some signs that alarmed me and then today some definite warning flags went up. She has been off the anti-biotics for 8 days now. Dr. Levitt has ordered a stool sample and has started her back on antibiotics as a precaution until the sample comes back. If it is negative we will just stop the meds. I had a feeling that he would treat aggressively as it is so dangerous. We will have to wait about 3 days once the sample is collected to get any answers. I am hoping that we can have those by the time we meet with him on Thursday.
I talked in length with Madison's teacher this morning. As the days tick by and we get closer to school starting my discouragement rises. I was so hopeful that things would have worked themselves out by now and that Madison would be able to be in undies and doing great. For some reason that is not where we are at. I am struggling to except that but am trying to stay positive and keep believing that none of this is a surprise to the Lord. Why Madison has to struggle so much will be a question I will have to deal with. Mrs. Hollis was great and is so understanding of all that Madison is going through. The school is willing to work with me as much as possible to make this as easy for Madison as possible. If the C-diff has returned I do not believe that enemas will even be an option right now. I talked with Miriam a little tonight and she implied that enemas would not be effective with the infection and antibiotics. Dr. Levitt has said that if by school we are no controlling her bowels that we would began the enema program for 3 months. My heart aches to think of that possibility. I will continue to trust his judgment as I feel like he has always done what was in her best interest. It is hard to weigh all of the options. The advantages of not doing enemas are that there would be no daily agony. It is so miserable to administer the enemas and so devastating for Mads. The downside of not doing them is that there is always the possibility that there could be teasing and joking that Madison is the only one that wears diapers. She has become immune to her own odor and it makes it difficult as she is not aware of an accident until I smell it. My heart breaks to think of what kids could say that would hurt or embarrass her.
So allot will be determined in the week ahead. Is there a new infection? Will she start school or will she be back in isolation? Will we start enemas? Is there still strong belief that bowel recognition is possible?
So much to take in and process. I broke down today for the first time in awhile... (Sorry Connie that you had to be there for that!) It is so hard. I try to be strong and some days I do really good, or at least do really good acting the part! Today has been hard. So we will start over tomorrow and pray for the strength to get through that day. I need to stop looking ahead as that gets to overwhelming. So here we are again, smack dab in the middle of a situation where we have to chose to have faith and believe that the Lord has an amazing plan for Madison's life, no matter how difficult.
Thanks so much for your continued prayers!! we all need them!
I will keep you posted!
Nikki
5 comments:
I will be praying for safe travel for the two of you this week. You and your family continues to amaze me how strong and faithful you have been through this ordeal. You have a great attitude of blindly trusting the Lord, because that is just about all you can do right now. Keep hanging in there for that harvest of righteousness that awaits you!
Nikki, glad I checked your blog before going to bed - just looking at those pictures makes me tired all over again! =) I could not have done it without your help - a thank you does not even come close to expressing how grateful I am!! It was fun for me to see all the "troops" working since I wasn't there that day. We are blessed beyond measure with our family!
Love you~
Mom
Hey Nikki,
How discouraging this must be for all of you, but I'm so encouraged in my personal life by your faith and close walk with the Lord through all of this. I'm thankful that we truly can believe that all things really do work together for the good of those who love God. YOu are living that verse Nikki and Jed, even in your "down" times. What a great testimony of your faith! and what a great example you are setting for those two sweet little girls.
I'm heading off to do my QT right now and you can be sure that I will be praying for the Smiths.
Much Love,
Linda
LOVED the pictures ....... and the memories from those fun days in Freeport. That house was always a veritable turnstyle of "comings and goings" ....... one never knew who would suddenly materialize out of the woodwork. There were always more people there than one would think ...... so many nooks and crannies. And no one ever knew what would happen next .......
I remember the day Lauren accidently knocked her aquarium over upstairs and suddenly your Mom and I were surrounding by fish-poo-water dripping out of the ceiling. And that happened AFTER several other similar catastrophes all in one day. One never knew what to expect next at the Cronk house. :-)
But I'll stop now with the memories ......they could fill pages. Someday when I write my first book .....
one very long chapter will be entitled "Cronks". :-)
Linda again
Nikki--well you can tell that I am just now reading your blog!!! I have to respond--you named me in your entry!!! I too have admired the strength I see in you, but we both know that our strength comes from the Lord--and He will continue to renew that strength when we feel we don't have any left. I too am learning this each day, in a brand new way!
Connie
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