Crohns Disease

Crohns Disease. AKA my intestines hate me.

I was diagnosed with Crohns Disease in September 2015...nine months after we got married. I had been really sick for a couple of years and doctors had a tough time figuring out what was going on. I quickly realized that the biggest advocate for my health was ME. It took some trial and error and switching doctors but the day I was diagnosed was actually a happy day because it no longer made me feel like I was going crazy.

I've had 4 hospital stays in three years, my most recent being January 2017. The hospital stays are basically for me to receive IV steroid treatments and pain meds while I go on bowel rest meaning clear liquids only.

My body has rejected 3 medicines so far and we are about to try a fourth one. This is pretty typical for chronic diseases as it takes a while to figure out what works as all people are different. For the most part, I have been managing the symptoms well for the past two years. I definitely have days where I can tell my body is flaring but I really try to listen to my body and give it what it needs...that being a bland diet and rest!

I have the BEST support system in the world. Craw has been my rock. I often say that dealing with a wife with a chronic illness is not what he signed up for when he married me but he quickly reminds me that it is exactly what he signed up for. He's seriously the best. He never complains and does whatever it takes to make sure I'm receiving the best care possible. My parents have also played a huge part in making sure I know I'm not alone in the journey. There were times I could see myself falling in to a depression after each hospital stay and they made sure to support me. Plus, mom makes the best chicken and rice which is PERFECT for a bland diet. My in-laws, friends, and church family have also been a huge support to me. Crohns can be a very silent disease as a person can look fine from the outside but feel like they are dying on the inside. That can be hard for people to understand. My friends quickly realized that there would be times I may have to miss events on short notice and they completely supported me.

Living with Crohns is definitely a roller coaster: emotionally, physically, and mentally. While Crohns does play a big part in my life, it does NOT define me. I am so thankful that I am able to live a normal life as there are people that deal with much worse.

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Bolton Adoption Auction





This weekend was our adoption auction and it was a HUGE success! My best friend Maggie came to me at the beginning of August, maybe even July, to see if we would be interested in doing an auction as a fundraiser. Our church had auctions in the past to help raise money for the youth and they were always successful. I immediately told her I would love to do it if she would coordinate it...because anyone that knows Maggie knows you WANT her to plan your events (she was my wedding planner also). We were at the beginning of our puzzle fundraiser so I asked her if we could wait a couple months. We checked the church calendar and set the date for October 21st.

Maggie, Kat, and Rebekah immediately went in to planning mode. We met at Starbucks one night in August and by the time we left the meeting, we already had an auctioneer, 4 tickets to an ECU game, and Kat calling everybody she knew to see if they would donate a good or service. We also had our game plan for auction night and Maggie's vision really started coming to life.

September was busy with us announcing the auction and seeking out people that would be willing to donate good or services. Our goal was to get 40 things that we could auction. It was a little slow at first but we were off to a great start. October came and we were in full on planning mode. Craw and I wanted to serve hotdogs beforehand as a way to get more people engaged and also say thank you to everyone that came out. My parents also helped us out greatly by generously offering to buy all of the food items for the hotdog supper (Thanks mom and dad)!

We set up the church on Friday night and it was awesome to see all of the items that were donated.  We ended up receiving 70 items to auction...way more than our initial goal of 40. So many people helped to make the auction a success. From the people that donated, to the men that cooked hotdogs, and women that served the food, to the ladies in our church that cooked cakes/baked goods/pies/etc. And of course my dream team: Kat, Rebekah, and Maggie. The auction would not have been successful without everybody that gave of their time, goods, services, and of course...MONEY!

We ended up raising $6,600 from the auction and donations are STILL coming in!
GOD IS GOOD!


Yall, I can't even explain how much this has blown my mind. I tried not to set expectations on the night but in the back of my mind, I was hoping for $2,500. All I could do was cry when they read me the total. Craw and I were so emotional Saturday night because this is the loudest we have EVER heard God speak to us and he is speaking LOUD AND CLEAR! Adoption is not just something that we want to do...God is commanding us to do this! And He is making sure that NOTHING stops us. Money is the number one reason why people don't pursue adoption and He is making sure that's not a problem for us.

We can't thank everyone enough. We keep saying thank you and that just seems so inadequate. I wish we could personally write thank you notes to everyone that has impacted us but I simply can't keep up with it all. So please please please, from the bottom of our hearts, know that we are THANKFUL for YOU and we love you! Craw says all the time that we can't wait for the day when we are on the other side of this, have our baby in our arms, and are able to help another couple pursue adoption.

As far as pictures go...I barely took any and I feel like a failure! LOL!! I'm hoping other people got some so I am waiting for them to send them to me but for now, here are the two that I took.

This boy is a GEM to me! I love him and his sister dearly and they were so excited to help raise money for Baby Bolton. They took it upon themselves to set up a picture drawing station where people could purchase pictures for .50 cent and they would get a picture of Craw, Hank, Baby Bolton, and myself to put on their fridge. They ended up raising $25! These kids are going to be WORLD CHANGERS with their hearts already yearning to help others!

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Do we have a name?

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We are asked this question almost every day. I get it...it's one of my favorite questions to ask people that are expecting. Before we even started this process, Craw and I had a girl name set in stone and we were 90% sure we had our boy name picked out. A few of the people closest to us know those names but it's one of those things that I feel like as soon as you go public with a name, it suddenly starts appearing everywhere. We've always known we wanted to keep it secret until we were ready to announce.

Here is what I didn't expect. In talking with a friend that recently adopted, I learned so much that I didn't know about the naming process when it comes to adoption. For example, the birth parents have the right to legally name the child. In other words, we will not be able to legally name the child until the adoption is finalized and we have a decree in hand. At that point, we can start the name changing process.

With that said, it really depends on the situation. Some birth parents are okay with the adoptive parents going ahead and naming the child at the time of birth. My friend stated that in her situation, her birth mother legally named her son. However, from the moment they got him, they referred to him as the name they planned to call to him. Everyone knows him by his adopted name. One thing that she did that I LOVED is she actually kept his middle name as the name the birth mother gave him. She told me that she wanted him to know that his biological mother played a part in naming him. I love that she did that and I have already told Craw that if our birth family names the child, I would like to consider incorporating it in to the name we have already picked out.

So all of this to say...we technically don't have any names finalized. It's going to be a wait and see kind of thing. 


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Homestudy Update

Our adoption journey is really moving and things seem to be happening fast. We just had our second interview with the social worker yesterday and I think it went great. This was the meeting I was most nervous about because our worker told us the questions would be a bit tougher. While they were tough, it was still fun and I think we did a great job sharing our hearts and answering them.

Here were a few of the questions we were asked:

What are our childcare arrangements for when we get the baby?
How long do we plan to stay out of work?
How will our faith/religious background play in to our role as parents?
How do we plan to incorporate our faith/religious background in to our child's life?
How do we plan to discipline our child?
How were we disciplined as children?
Are we open to any gender?
Are we open to any race?
If we get a child that is of a difference race, are we open to learning and teaching our child about their ethnic background?
Are we open to a special needs child?
How many children would we adopt?

As you can see, most of these were straight forward questions with straight forward answers. However, some were in depth questions that required a much deeper discussion. We LOVE our social worker so it was actually fun answering the questions because she was able to share some of her own experiences as a mother which was fun to hear.

We have one visit left with the social worker and the last one will be at our house. She will be doing a walk through and checking out the space in which our child will live.  After that, she will be typing up the report and submitting it.  We are hoping to have the homestudy approved by the end of November. At that point, we will be able to start the matching process with our agency.

This process has truly blown my expectations out of the water. I was so scared to start this journey and it has been such a positive experience so far. I'm sure we will have some stressful days/weeks ahead but I am so thankful with how far God has brought us. Each and every single day, we are one step close to Baby Bolton.


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NC State Fair 2017

Sheeew! I am happy tired today! We had an action packed weekend and my body is feeling it this morning. Yesterday, I went to the NC State Fair with friends and it was a fun day but it was packed with people. We learned our lesson and don't plan to go back to the State Fair on a Sunday again...it was more packed than when we went on Saturday last year. We had a fun time but I missed Craw. He was having to fulfill some of his deacon duties yesterday afternoon and planned to meet us at the fair but after it took 2 hours just to get to the fair and through the gate, I told him not to come. He ended up playing golf so he still had a good time.
Since Craw didn't go, I brought home several treats for him which included kettle corn, fried oreos, and 2 Miss Debbie's specialty apples. I can't help but think next year, we will hopefully have another stroller added to this mix with a little baby inside. We can't wait!


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Life Lately

Here is a look at what's been happening in our life lately.
Craw went to the Clemson game on Saturday with Kevin.  The game was at Death Valley and this was Craw's first time visiting the stadium. While he is still a State fan, he respects the Orange and was thankful for the free tickets. They had seats 4 rows up on the 35 yard line so they were sweet seats.
While Craw was at the game, I was enjoying spending time with this little nugget. Carter is already growing so fast and he is such a sweet baby. I successfully got him to sleep and learned how to swaddle.
 
 
 
Sunday was Homecoming at church. It was a dreary rainy day so after church, the kids wanted Pelicans. It was the last day of the season for snowballs so a little rain was not stopping these kids. I got a new phone a couple of weeks ago so I have been enjoying trying out the Portrait mode on the camera.
Last but not least, we have finally started working on the nursery. Right now, we are still trying to clean the room out but I have been slowly gathering my ideas for the little space. It's going to be tough keeping it gender neutral but I love white so it shouldn't be too hard for me. I have been eyeing this flushmount light for the past 3 months but that price tag wasn't doing it for me. I decided to hop on ebay and see what they had and I definitely lucked out. I scored this same exact light NWT for $50. I freaked out when I saw it. It's probably not something you would expect to see in a nursery but I can see the vision in my head so you will have to wait and see if I can pull it off.

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The Best Weekend Ever

Craw and I took Friday off so we had a wonderful nice long weekend. It was one of the best weekends we have had in a long time. We kicked off the weekend Thursday night with a little gym sesh and lots of cuddle time with our sweet boy.
We had our first interview with our social worker on Friday.  It went very well and we had a little fun taking trips down memory lane to answer the questions. Since the meeting was in Wake Forest, we drove to Louisburg after the meeting to play a little golf and see Craw's family.
Don't be fooled by me holding a club. I'm not good and I was only there for the fun...although Craw said that I made him play bad.
*eye roll*
We ended Friday night under some beautiful football lights. Craw's brother, Casey, coaches and his cousin plays for Louisburg High School so we went to the game. I enjoyed catching up with my sis-in-law and it was such a fun night with family.
Saturday was the perfect fall day. We kept our "nieces" for a few hours and had a blast with them. We visited the pumpkin patch and park and its safe to say these girls had a blast.
Saturday night we had dinner with friends and Sunday we went to church and had a wonderful day. And guess what made the weekend even better????? The Panthers beat the Patriots 33-30! My sister is a HUGE Patriots fan so it was AWESOME to actually win against the defending Super Bowl Champions. Fingers crossed we can keep playing like we did yesterday!





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