Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Celebration and Sick

July 7, 2009

Happy belated forth of July everyone! We celebrated here on the 3rd of July since some people were busy on the 4th and our team is now half Canadian so we went in between the 1st (Canada’s Independence Day) and the 4th. We had a fun time playing volleyball, horse shoes, and bocce ball. We grilled and had a wonderful potluck picnic. Afterwards we had a campfire and smores (for anyone who could eat anymore).

We have also been sick around here. Lydia started it last week when she said her stomach hurt. A few days later she throw-up and had a fever. After that came the diarrhea. I always feel so bad when my kids are sick. Lydia is a real trooper when she is sick. She is easy going even when she is sick. We put Lydia on medicine for Giardia and she was better in a day. Then it was Grace’s turn. She went through the same thing so we thought it was probably a bug going around. Grace did well too and took many nice naps. After that it was my turn. I had a crampy, gasy stomach for over five days and thought something would come of it. I started to feel sicker each day, then got a fever, and a major case of Giardia. I was sicker than I have ever been in Africa. I don’t know if you know much about Giardia but it is an intestinal bug that causes A LOT of gas and of course diarrhea (don’t you love how missionaries talk so casually about diarrhea). Because I am nursing I couldn’t take the medicine. I had to let it run it’s course or get rid of it self. I was in so much pain. My stomach literally sounded like a pot boiling on the stove. It felt like it too. I would compare it to labor but I know that was worse. All I could do is let it “boil” then take another trip to the bathroom. Poor Josh was on full parent and nurse duty. He did everything for 24 hours (or more). He is such a great Dad by the way. And he can cook really well. I didn’t have to worry about them at all. After along night, I was thankful that God heard our prayers. I felt quite a bit better and the next day almost all better. Praise God! I felt like my stomach had gone to war and was really tired. Thankfully my husband allowed my to sleep a lot and get well. My tummy still rumbles at time so we will keep an eye on that but otherwise I am SO much better.

Now we hope we are finished with this sickness. Luka seemed to have a touch of it but is doing well. He does have a cold that bothers him at night which bothers us. While I was sick I asked Josh if possibly it could be our new water filter. Because you cannot pass Giardia and it usually comes from water. He got out the instruction sheet about it and surprise, surprise it was not meant for cleaning water but for filtering clean water. Can you believe it a $700 water filter that doesn’t clean water?! Only in America. Thankfully we didn’t buy the filter but Josh did work on it a whole day installing it. What a let down. Well now the water filter is packed up and put away. We just hope we didn’t get anyone else sick.
So pray for all of us. It seems a lot of us on the team have been struggling with being sick – diarrhea, malaria, pain, infections, colds… I believe we are being attacked. Our team is doing well so satan is distracting and discouraging us with sickness. Thanks for your prayers for all of us. We know God is with us and is our healer. We can trust in Him.

Avalien turned four today. Grace was crying about it last night because everyone would be older than her. While we were saying our night time prayer and she interrupted and said, “pray for my problems too Mom”. She was all upset about it. There are a lot of birthdays lately and Lydia’s is next so we will see how Grace handles that one. Grace was fine for the party though and we had fun celebrating with Avalien.

The other day a storm started and Lydia was afraid. Grace gently told her, “God is with us Lydia”. Isn’t it so good when you hear young faith come out of your children? Praise God He is growing in them.

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