Bit of a bug

I was not aware, despite being a mother three times over (four if you count the dog) that three tiny little bodies were capable of so much mess. At one point in the last 36 hours, I am pretty sure that ever single sheet and blanket and towel was either in the wash, in the dryer, or waiting to go in.

This little bug started with me. It moved to Abigail. And while I was at the emergency room with Abigail, my mom put the boys to bed together, only to have Elijah wake up, having thrown up. When I got home, I went to move Isaac away from the place where Elijah had thrown up, nearly on him, and watched helplessly as he threw up.

It has continued in to today. Both diarrhea and throwing up. Abigail has been considerably better thanks to a shot at the ER and some pedialite. But the boys have been nearly exact carbon copies of each other about thirty minutes apart. All night long, one would throw up. Fifteen minutes would go by, and I could nearly pinpoint the minute that the other would throw up.

I'm not sure why, but during my nearly continual round-the-clock clean-up, hugging, holding, soothing fest, I saw the Lord in two concrete ways.

The first was in the miracle of the human body. It was actually slightly fascinating to watch how amazing the Lord made our bodies. Here are two boys with completely different genes, having their bodies completely revolt because there is something inside it that shouldn't be there. And their bodies are doing exactly what God designed them to do to rid themselves of the thing that shouldn't be there. Their bodies are doing the same exact things just minutes apart. That may seem a bit of an "out-there" thought to process in the midst of sickness, but I couldn't help but marvel at God's design of our bodies.

Or maybe I've just been married to my husband for long enough to have some of his way of looking at things rub off on me.

The second was in how much the Lord loves us. Oh how much I love my children. Oh how sad I am when they are sick. Oh how my heart hurts to see them hurting. To see them look at me with a Why is this happening, Mommy? question spread across their little faces. I see how much the Lord loves us. How much he wants to just sit on the couch and hold us when we are having a bad day. How much he wants us to feel better as soon as possible. When we won't drink to rehydrate ourselves, he asks us to. Gently nudges us to. Again. And again. And again. Even after we push him away. Again. And again.

Oh and a quick funny. Since I had just felt the way that they had and knew what it felt like, I tried to encourage them each time they threw up. "You are doing a good job." or "It's okay." At one point Isaac turned to me and said, "Mommy. It's not okay. I hate the throw up."

I agree! Hopefully the morning will bring healing and restoration to all of our weary bodies. Praise the Lord my Dad and Mom have stayed healthy. But I've told everyone else, especially Joni, since her husband Roy has a compromised immune system, to stay away. We're lonely. We've got cabin fever.

And we are all ready to feel better soon.