Yucky Sickness

Yup. That's what went on in our family four days before we were planning on leaving the city to return to Caazapa. Fevers, runny noses that wouldn't stop, sleepless nights (and not because of Silas!), whiny children, midnight runs to the pharmacy, loss of appetites, chronic coughing, weary parents, lots of prayers...with no signs of any of it ending soon. Except the prayer part. And that was Eli, Toby, and Sammie, all three at the same time, who were fighting some sort of virus that made its way around our entire SIM team. Lovely.

So this is what our bathroom sink looked like: full of medicine, hand sanitizer, soap, cotton balls, syringes. Then we added a couple more as we extended our stay in the city to see the doctor who gave us a prescription for a stronger cough medicine that worked wonders for the children (they actually slept at night!) and Toby ended up having a horrible ear infection and was put on an antibiotic and ear drops. What was a mom to do when her children needed her to hold them and take care of them yet she needed to keep a bit of distance in order to protect her newborn? Silas ended up getting sick anyway the day before we were officially leaving. We checked with the doctor to make sure it was OK we left and he said we should be fine but our nights involved giving Silas a nasal spray and suctioning out his nose almost every hour during the night so he could sleep, propped up on a pillow in between Dan and I. It's during times like these when I want my mom! After two full weeks, everyone is finally feeling better. Dan and I never really got sick, even though Dan did start feeling under the weather for a couple of days. Thanks to God for giving us some warm weather when we first got back to Caazapa and for His protection. I am reminded of how blessed we are that for the most part, we have strong, healthy children. All praise and glory to our Heavenly Father!!