Overwhelmed

Wow. This whole moving process is totally beyond overwhelming. 

We got the keys yesterday and started moving things over today. We don't have much, but the salvage company showed up with most of what they were able to clean, which turned out to be a lot more than we expected. So we had lots to do. 

Anyone who knows me well knows that I have a touch of ADD (ok, maybe more than a touch), so going through something like this  is all kinds of tough. Every time I turn around, I'm overwhelmed by everything that has to be done, everything that has to be bought, etc. It's sort of like registering...while you're homeless. Not quite as exciting as you'd think. It's just a lot.

But we're muddling through this. I know each day will be one day closer to getting back into routines and settling into a new normal. 

In the middle of all of this, I am so grateful for God's touch in our lives - most especially for placing a few key people in it. I am BEYOND grateful for two amazing girlfriends who have been very effective at reining in my crazies. Faith (whose daughter Anna happens to be Sierra's bestie), has been organizing furniture donations and local support in a way I never could have at the moment. And Jennifer, who took time out of her busy schedule today to help me get our kitchen moved in and set up. I tell ya, if I didn't have these girls to help me, I'd probably be rocking in a corner somewhere, surrounded by unopened boxes. So THANK YOU, Jennifer and Faith!

And thank-you to all of you who have offered furniture, sent money or giftcards, or donated to our fundraiser. I wanted to send everyone individual thank-you notes, but, yeah, that just isn't happening right now. So, please, please accept my heartfelt thank you for your love and support during this transition time!

And, speaking of help, we still need lots of it! Our biggest need is regarding furniture and moving into our rental home. If you live locally and are available to help us move some furniture this weekend, please email Faith as soon as possible at Faith.Spelbring@lhm.org - and, if you have any of the following furniture and are willing to donate it, please also email Faith: night stands, DVD player, sofa, bar stools (standard size), file cabinet, patio furniture, BBQ and 2 Twin air mattresses (until our new mattresses arrive next week). 

Also, if you live locally and can spare some time to help us unpack and move stuff in next week, please email me at amykbennett@gmail.com and let me know!

Like I said, this part of the journey has been rough. And there is just SO.MUCH to do. But even in the darkness, the craziness, there have been sweet moments of light.

Moments like Bodie's beads. In the hubbub of the salvage crew combing through the bedrooms and the loss team taking what was left, I realized on Saturday that I hadn't seen Bodie's Beads of Courage. I was so afraid they had been in with the dress-up clothes, most of which had been thrown out (not worth the cost of cleaning - just cheaper and easier to replace them). I sent an email to the Contents Director, Jyl, to ask if she could find out whether they had salvaged them. She had her team pull all of the boxes from the kids' room yesterday to comb through them to see whether the beads were in them.

I was beside myself worrying that something so precious had been inadvertently thrown out. 

I got an email from Jyl this morning that the beads had been found! And, bless her heart, when the moving crew showed up today with all of our salvaged stuff, the very first thing the driver did was bring me the beads, telling me that he had been instructed to hand deliver them to me personally.  

Amazing. For those of you unfamilar with Beads of Courage, it is a nonprofit organization that helps you to tally the number of different procedures and surgeries your child has experienced, and sends you a corresponding bead for each individual procedure, along with a lanyard personalized with your child's name. 

Bodie's beads represent 2 cardiac catheterizations, 9 central line and PICC placement & removals, 6 clinic visits, 94 nights spent in the CardioThorasic ICU, 15 days spent on TPN, 25 dressing changes, 36 echocardiograms, 2 emergency/unusual occurences, 5 antibiotic infusions, 43 nights spent in the step-down unit, 75 days spent in isolation, 4 different instances of learning new medications, 135 IV Starts and blood draws, 150 CT scans, EKGs, MRIs & X-rays, 5 tranfusions, 22 NG, chest tube & foley catheter insertions and removals, 21 days spent on a ventilator, 50 visits from PT/OT/Nutrition, 3 extraordinary experiences, 3 cardiac surgeries and 5 hospital discharges. 

And that's before his Fontan and subsequent hospitalizations this past Summer and Fall.

I get choked up just thinking about it.

Now you see why I was beside myself thinking they were gone.

What an answer to prayer that they were found.