Happy Halloween from our Courageous LION

So I gotta say the best place ever to find your halloween costume is at the Wakarusa Resale...I think I paid 5 dollars for this Lion costume and how cute is he. Isn't he the most adorable Lion you have ever met and the most Courageous too. I gotta say it was very nice to have the costume fit so well over the cast. He will probably be able to wear this next year too. We won't but it was that big. It was fun to dress him up...but not so fun taking him in and out of the car seat. It would have been bad enough with out the cast but with it, it was very frustrating. We only went to see three people and then stopped at Jim and Libby's. This is a tradition that we have upheld since before Adrain and I started Dating. I have always helped them pass out candy. Next year maybe I will make it on time. I was two hours late this year. By that time around 7 they had handed out candy to 432 trick or treaters and there were many more that came while we were there. By the time we left around 8 pm Jackson was very tired and ready to come home. He fell asleep on the way home and is still sleeping peacefully. After our big day today I am sure he will sleep well tonight.

Adjusting to the life of IMMOBILITY

ok so we ALL are adjusting to a life of immobility. Macy, jackson and I have been trying a little of everything. He loves to play catch in the bean bag, until mom's aim gets bad and his defenseless little self gets hit in the face. He can sit in the bean bag on the floor or in his wagon and he loves to move. But you have to be there when the toys fall off the bean bag. So no more playing independantly and he HATEs it. we had a blast today and we actually got a smirk while playing with toys. We have watched some tv and we are still working on getting back on schedule. it will interesting to see what the therapist have in store for us...and what ideas they have to make our lives easier. Jackson actually took a two hour nap today and so I have finished laundry and updated this so we will see how the rest of the day goes today. A big THank you to all of you who have offered help. I think we may use it farther down the road. It is hard to believe in two more days we are down to 5 weeks. Time flys when you are having fun, right? Have a great week.

WE ARE HOME!!!

We are HOME!!!

we are home and adjusting quickly. I was amazed last night that Jackson did as well as he did. We woke up every four hours for Tylenol and then went right back to sleep. Exactly like clockwork. I have to say the highlight to my day yesterday was when Adrian had Jackson looking out the window and he grabbed the curtain and started playing peek a boo. It brought a smile right to my face. He still knows how to light up a room. He is still mighty uncomfortable, but we are adjusting and his gas has started to come out with poop...so I think we are on the up swing. We will see, time will tell.

Our friends have been great. Already calling and setting up there slot to come and visit. Remember guys this is a 6 week ordeal So we can spread it out some. Thank you all for your offers of help and keeping your phone lines open if I need you. It gives me great relief to know people are out there for me if times get rough. We also think that Adrian will be in town the entire 6 weeks which is awesome and somewhat of a miracle this time of year.

This is just a quick note...as we have lots of moving of furniture to do today and putting toys away and getting new ones out that are more suitable. Tomorrow I will post some pictures today we are just adjusting.

thanks for the continued prayers of healing.

Update 2 We have been discharged

we met with the Doctor from Ortho and then we saw Dr Billmire too. Dr B was concerned with his vomiting and lack of eating due to the concern of dehydration if he was not on an IV, but she was ok with it if we stayed in town. That way we could take him to the Riley ER if he was dehydrated and they wouldn't be scared by what he looks like in this cast. I will post more pictures of his finished cast when we get home. I just feel bad taking his picture now. he flinches at the flash and then is in some pain. So we will wait.

he is sleeping peacefully right now on the floor propped with pillow for comfort. it is actually quite comfy looking. he started to talk a little tonight once we got to Conrad and Jenna's too. I think he just likes his aunt and uncle and something looked familiar.

We will stay here until he is holding down food consistently and we are still waiting for a big blow out. Til then pray for these things. We could use God's help with all of this. Especially keeping the cast clean during this puking and pooping blow out/diarrhea stuff.

Thank you all for the encouragement and prayers. We appreciate them all.

Update:

I bring you this news somewhat disappointed. Surgery went well, but they only were able to relocate one. Dr Lubicky said that this is actually better. He explained that it is actually really hard to keep both in place during casting and that doing one at a time, although hard on the MOM...is easier for the kid and more successful.

He claims we are going to be discharged sometime tomorrow. :) I am happy to not be here but wow...24 hours and then were out..seems kinda fast. But for those of you that have met Dr Lubicky you know that he is pretty flip. SO getting straight answers is difficult. He gave little indication to when the next one would be other than saying that we would rehab this leg a while before being in another cast for 6 weeks.

This cast is fiberglass and sticks straight out...so it will be difficult to maneuver but a heck of alot lighter to carry than plaster. I guess by the end of this 6 weeks we will pros for the second 6 weeks of the cast. The doc egged me on by saying there was a prize for the cleanest cast. We will try cuz the smell with my heightened senses, will be replusive if I don't keep it clean. I will need God's help with all of this that is for sure. For those of you who think I am a patient person (ashley)...this will be the true test.

Thanks for all of your prayers and encouragement. We appreciate it all.

A long day at day Surgery:

Jackson started his day at 5 am. we got to the hospital around 6 am checked in and he went in to the OR around 7:30 am. We have had things put into perspective. In our little area in the waiting room we have one family waiting on a 14 hour brain surgery and a couple who's 11 month old has already had 11 surgeries. We are blessed that Jackson's is short and he has only had a few.I will continue to update through out today. We will leave you with Jackson's last walking picture for the next couple of months. He was not happy until the nurse took him...and of course our social baby loved someone new. They had problems with the IV, so they are putting a central line in instead of an arterial line. This will make life easier after words too. That is the update...no surgery started yet..

Business as usual in the home of Jackson

it is funny how life is..........
and it is so sweet to watch you child live life oblivious to what life has handed him. Jackson and I have spent the day doing laundry, packing, cleaning and running last minute errands...and he thinks it is a normal day. He has no idea what is in store for him. We sat down and tried to have a talk about it, but he wanted nothing to do with what I had to say. either he knows it is going to be just fine, or he doesn't have a clue what I am saying to him.

this past weekend we got sometime to hang out with friends, take pictures, watch some football and enjoy the beautiful fall weather. it started Thursday when I found out they had lost our outfits I had ordered for our pictures. I flipped...I had this planned for two weeks...allowing plenty of time for JCPenny to get the clothes to us. I called Adrian in tears sobbing, our pictures aren't going to turn out, we aren't going to match, my vision is not going to happen, it is going to STINK!!! however for a girl who usually can't find anything to wear in a normal store I sure did well...I found two options and took them home. However I settled for a sweater I found buried in my closet from before Jackson was born, that surprisingly fit. Yea!! for no money spending. I also found Adrian and outfit in his closet....God is good...he really wanted us to have the picture we wanted without spending a dime. love it when that happens...well we did buy Jackson a new sweater. Seriously though, when you don't grow you rarely get new clothes...so it was fun to shop for him. I have to say I saw alot of cute stuff for fall and I was tempted but I didn't...yippppeeee for self control. Our pictures turned out fabulous you can see them at
c-onephoto.com if you look under client you will find our photo shoot. Lee did a great job and we have wonderful choices to choose from. Thanks again Lee for the gift.

back to Friday, friday we took a meal to the Replogle's and then went shopping with Diane to find a couple of choices..also finished up some errands that we needed done before we left..

then we came home and went to our friends Jay and Katy's for a pumpkin carving party.

;) love this picture of JW and Jackson...he looks like such a thug. it makes me laugh. and it is so unusual that he is not beeming with a smile it is nice to have captured his serious side. We enjoyed hot apple cider, a fire and the funnies of watching a bunch of people carve very intricate patterns into pumkins. fun times with friends overall.

then Saturday we had our pictures at one and then made homemade applesauce with Grandma Schrock. Fun to do something as a family. we don't get to do that very often and we had a blast. (Mom, doesn't this pic remind you of the one of Adrian and I with Syd...perfectly coordinated family photo...with someone elses kid. Granted syd looked more like she could be our kid.)

Next we ate homemade chicken noodle soup...great idea for a fall day. then headed over to Seth and Tabitha's for a game of poker and some more time with friends. gotta say I don't promote gambling...but my husband makes it more of a second Job. rarely does he come home without winning anything...but this time he brought home the pot. It was nice to have a little spending money. I should have taken a picture, but is better I guess to not have any evidence of this addiction..

Sunday we went to church, then chior practice and then we headed over to watch the second half of let me say: a brutal ending to the Vikings game. I gotta say both sides played pretty crappy. The Bears defense scored more than there offense. But Jackson enjoyed sitting with the boys and enjoying the day. I was happy to get home and relax. I was exhausted. We will update you on the busy end of our week tomorrow. Have a good one.

Hectec day full of colorful moments

Well I know that I updated yesterday, but today has been way to eventful not to share. The day began at 5:30 am. Jackson standing at his crib screaming... *I gotta say I never liked an alarm clock...but I would go back in a heart beat*

Then I was cleaning up because I have found a nursing student at Goshen college that has been coming to watch Jackson when I go to MOTTS on Thursday mornings. She is going to help some while he is in his cast too. it is nice to know that there is a person with emergency experience watching him and that She will be able to use the experience later as well. it got to be 8:30 when I needed to leave and no one was here...So I continued to look for my cell phone that was MIA and waited...when It hit 8 :45 I started to load Jackson's stuff in the car as well. There are certain things I am willing to blow off and miss but MOTTS has become something that I would move heaven and High water to make it too. that is a story I will save for another day. God really had a plan for my morning. Lindsey called and she had gotten lost and needed directions. She arrived about 9 which was when my group started, but oh well. then I left the house...got to 19 and then remembered that there was road construction, so I decided to try and go around. So I ended up lost on some back country road. Beautiful scenery! but remember I didn't have time for this. I found county road 3 and it sounded familiar to the road I jog over too, but i didn't know for sure...all of a sudden i just felt ok. i am going to be late, and look at what I am driving through. It is gorgeous fall colors and beautiful woods. I would have never seen this if I wouldn't have been late, had road construction to go around, and gotten lost. God is good. I ended up making it to MOTTS in around 20 minutes. which is like 10-15 minutes faster than the what it usually takes. How did that happen? There are alot more little things that happened, but all in all my day has turned around. Great trip to target...do you remember what trips to the store are like without a child...it was alot more peaceful not having a child stretching to the shelves and almost falling out of the cart. then I ran into our home nurse from when Jackson came home from the hospital and scheduled a time for her to come see him all big and grown up. then got home and had a happy baby. Something changed from 8:30 t0 noon, what I am not questioning. I had a first steps appointment and added Speech therapy and got rid of the PT that I wasn't completely happy with. All day in the good and the bad God has taught me to find the good in the situation and to enjoy the moments.
It is amazing right now the changing of colors. I think we need to let God change us too and get rid of the old leaves to make room for new ones. Imagine how beautiful that change would look if we give God the chance to change us. Just something I have been thinking about lately. Enjoy the moments of your week and the beautiful colors around you.

Fall Fun and the a Great Update.

This past weekend...we spent a little time outside. It was so much fun to play in the leaves in warm weather. No socks, no shoes, yet the beautiful colors of fall. I got some pictures that I just love. Not often that I find one of Jackson and I that I love, but this one has made the top 5. then we had Jackson playin in the leaves...Gotta say we can't wait til they dry out and we can go out since the leaves have fallen...the pictures will be so cool.

then this one makes me laugh. he got so excited he just started screaming...it was totally funny in person.
this face comes out a lot lately...total attitude at 14 months...what do I have to look forward to at 2 and 3...oh my. we will be sure to keep you updated.



Good news at the doc...we have clear ears. whooohooo...we have a bit of a cough and a wicked case of thrush...so we are treating, but neither looks like a hold off for surgery...so we are on for next thursday October 23rd. Life has been so good lately. I just continue to pray that God will protect Jackson and his surgery will go well. I am also praying for strength and patience for Adrian and I too. THings are prepared and we have many ideas on how to modify things like swings and wagons and toys so Jackson can continue to enjoy while in his cast. I feel as ready as we can be and I know God will take care of the rest.

14 months...it gets crazier to me everytime.

at 14 months we are:

* a ham...we laugh and make faces...we can light up a room..

* a flirt...there is no girl that gets past us with out a smirk, he melts there hearts already. we are in BIG BIG TROUBLE.

* he is walking along and around furniture all the time and is even starting to let go...so we will be standing and then taking steps..oh my heavens who would ever believe it.. WOW!

* he loves books...right now he is laying on his back on the floor, holding the book over his head and talking to himself. if I do say so my self, he is reading at 14 months.

* he is walking around and along furniture all the time.

* loves peek a boo, and plays it anywhere, anytime, with anyone

* he is into unloading or taking things out. he unloads the freezer, the dishwasher, the toy basket, and the diaper bag...and grins as he is doing it.

* he is a smart little sucker...he knows what he is doing.

* he is a speedy crawler and has learned how to go from crawling to sitting and is transitioning much better.

* he has an attention span for tv that is .5 seconds long and I am ok with that.

* we have started chewing on graham crackers and we still like cheetos. still no more than tastes of any baby food or people food. it still makes him gag and he throws up.

* speaking of throwing up, we have had none for two hole months... other than the occassional choking incident. WHOOOHOOO!!!

* he loves playing and has started to play with others too. it is so cute although his idea of playing is to take the books from others...gotta work on this.

* loves to be outside and to do anything with his daddy.

* he has also accomplished crawling through, under nad over things.

* he is still inquisitive and studies everything

* and he is determined...if there is something he wants to do...he will get it done. such as:

* he is now into buttons...he is turing the tv on and off, recording things, and opening the DVD player. ( i know i remember saying oh Jackson doesn't do those things like I was sad about it, I take it back...I should have just enjoyed to delay)

* he is starting to climb up stairs too...but only when we offer him as incentive at the top. so it isn't scary yet. but he is so strong.

* he tries to crawl and walk through things too and gets so frustrated when it doesn't work or he gets stuck. oh well he will learn eventually. I think that is all for now.

Happy 14 months dude...you impress me more everyday...and I am enjoying every minute of it...

the day to day of the schrock home....

So we have been grocery shopping and Jackson likes to help. if you get him to close to the aisle, you better check the shopping cart...you might have some random box in your cart that you have never seen...see he likes to reach and grab, all while trying not to fall out of the cart. it is quite the sight. when we got home the fun didn't end. I set him down in the living room and by the time I had the groceries on the counter and began to unload them into the frig and freezer, Jackson had begun unloading the freezer. He is totally into helping...or should I say emptying. hehe....it is funny. Jackson's benefit was this weekend. And as I promised pictures. here are a few. there were so many people...not sure what pictures we got. This shows the outside...check out that line of people...oh my...it never stopped until they ran out...at least of coffee. It was nuts... then the inside. it was a steady flow through all the auction items. it takes a while to look at 74 items and decide what is more important for you to bid on. Then we also got to meet Jon. Jon lives in Michigan and is an 11 year old little boy that has the same genetic association that Jackson does. It was so encouraging to meet him and his mom. Plus we found out they only live like 10 minutes from our house. We definitely will be getting together soon. it is so fasinating to me to hear about Jon's story. It is also like hearing a slightly different version of our own story. Can you believe it all because of a newspaper article. it is so crazy. once we slept in a little and took naps on Saturday we decided to head to the pumpkin patch. it was so funny to watch how excited jackson got. and of course everything went to his mouth...it was pretty funny...can you see the pumpkin to the right of him in the picture without a stem. there were signs everywhere that said do not pick up by stem. the first thing Jackson did was grab the stem and it just fell off. oooopppppss.......he's cute so he got away with it, no problem.

we got some beautiful mums too..quite cheap i may add. it was fun my mom bought mums too..hopefully they made it back to mn. it was great having my parents here for the week and that they got to see Jackson in prime form, not in a hip cast.

We are now preparing for surgery in two weeks and getting ready for Daddy's busy season. he was gone this week for three days. can't wait to see him tonight. jackson has been pounding on the window saying daddy for the last couple of nights...he is going to be so excited to see him.

we had blood work yesterday that we are still waiting on results of. I am calling now to see what the results were. We are hoping that the antibiotics we have been on for the past three weeks have not done a doosie on our metabolic panel making his kidney work extra hard. of course I am on hold.

we are good to go...everything has remained stable...praise the lord. whoohoo..

hope you all are enjoying your day in on this beautiful fall day of chilly weather and rain. we are...hope the week brightens up a bit...man I love fall. Have a good one.

God Showed up in a very very BIG way!!!

So as you can see to the left on my blog Jackson's benefit logo has changed. We had his benefit on Friday and talk about an amazing experience. God sure is on BIG and AMAZING God that can over come anything and everything. I know you are all wanting to know the total of what came in, but you gotta hold on I gotta tell you about the atmosphere that night.

it was so incredible to witness the ideas of 6 individuals come together in an event that reached so many. I would say at no single time were there less than 30 people at the event and that includes the beginning. See there were so many volunteers it was unreal and without them it never could have run as smoothly as it did. so to all of our friends new and old we THANK YOU from the bottom of our heart for baking, standing all night and shivering in the cold outside. You guys all ROCK.

For those of you that weren't there. The silent auction was amazing. I remembered a conversation that I had had with Alice the week before and she was excited that there had been 33 items donated to the auction. Which is an awesome amount. Well ladies and gentlemen when I arrived at the auction on Friday night I was informed that there were now 74 items that had been donated. People went out of there way to donate to this benefit, people we don't even know and for that we are beyond amazed and very grateful.


on that note: Thank you to our families and friends that put the time, effort and money into this. We have been humbled and blessed in many ways by this event and experience.

I want to take a minute to tell you about some special moments that happened through this event. There was a day a couple of months back that we got a knock on our door it was our neighbor girl telling us that we had a lady looking for our house. This little grey haired lady had a gift for us and expressed her concern as she had read Jackson's article in the paper. I said Thank You but chose not to open the card until I got in the house. It was a gas card for our trips to Indy. Can you believe it a random stranger. God can use everyone.

Then a couple weeks after the article ran I got an email from Alison and Mark from the Elkhart Truth. It was from a lady in Michigan who had read the article and wanted to encourage us. See her 11 year old son has the same genetic association as Jackson does and he is a thriving young boy. Talk about encouragement. That was the most amazing news a mom could here. A success story.

Now for what you have all been waiting for: the benefit raised over 10,000 dollars for our family. We can not Thank you all enough for the money, the prayers, the encouragment that you have all shared with us. So from the bottom of our humbled, grateful hearts we say THANK YOU!!

(have pictures but my computer will not upload them so we will post pictures next time. )