Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Three Ring Circus

Sometimes I feel like I'm the Ringmaster at a Three Ring Circus. "Come one, come all to the Big Top at the Day House!" I have my lion (Hailey) and my trick dog (Hershey). What tricks does Hershey do? Well, let me tell you-she does a mean "PLAY DEAD" trick and she is fabulous at the "Hershey, STAY!" command! I have my clown-Michael and his little person counterpart-Spencer. They are always up to no good and always very entertaining. My Lion jumps right in the middle of the clown antics and always seems to entertain everyone and boy does that Lion jump on her prey when it's feeding time!! Then there's the baby elephant-Madeline. Getting her dressed in the morning is like wrestling a baby elephant to the ground. Unlike Hershey, she has NO IDEA what the STAY command means. I can almost hear her thinking, "SURGERY?? I LAUGH at surgery...What else you got?" Then there's me-the ringmaster, surrounded by all the chaos and trying my darnest to keep order. Very rarely does the ringmaster win because, on any given night, you will usually find the ringmaster, the lion, the clowns and the elephant in a big heap of laughter on the bed. Good thing the trick dog does what SHE'S told!

Thursday, March 4, 2010

On the flipside....






Hi All-
So we are a week post op and Madeline is doing fantastic (well, except for last night-when she was up with a fever and very grouchy. We think it's ears and are going in to have it look at shortly). Anyway-other than that-she is doing so well. Both of her eyes are completely open and the swelling has gone down tremendously. She has been a real trooper and I can't believe how quickly she has bounced back. There are so many people that I have to thank. I have to thank my parents for coming up here and especially MeMe for staying the week to help Madeline heal. I have to thank Michael's parents. Big Daddy went to appointments with me and helped us transport kids back and forth. But mostly, I have to thank everyone that's reading this. I was humbled by the number of people praying for Madeline and I believe it was those prayers that carried Madeline through the surgery and now into recovery. Lastly, the doctors and nurses and support staff at Scottish Rite were stellar. They took such good care of Madeline and of us and they truly care about the kids they treat. I told all our nurses that I loved each one of them but I never wanted to see them again (unless it was at the grocery store!). So, my Maddy is going to be fine and she can get back to being Maddy...
The night before the surgery, I talked to God and told him that he would just get Maddy through this and give her back to me that I would take such good care of her. Well, he lived up to his side of the deal-so now I guess it's my turn!