First, foremost and always, may I say God is faithful? Thank you. I'll repeat it so it appears without a question mark. God is faithful. And good. And Brooklyn is alive, reasonably well, and has been so miraculously healed that she was released from the London hospital where she eventually arrived and she and her wonderful family returned to our city to finish her recovery. It may take several months before everything is stable enough to even consider their return to Sierra Leone, but she is ALIVE!!!! And she will be at church with us this Sunday. Where my eldest son will undoubtedly make inappropriate exclamations over the number of stitches in her arm. (One of her complications involved an incision the entire length of 1 arm to relieve swelling)
September passed in a tornado of prayer for our sweet girl and her family and we wouldn't have it any other way. Our little faith family really pulls out all the stops when it comes to loving on those of us in crisis and the enormity of Brookie's needs only made that trait shine. Our pastor flew to London on less than 12 hours notice, stayed a week to care and pray and just pour out all the love we feel for them and then came home and preached a sermon about what God taught him while he was away. All of us are just so thankful and relieved and giddy and amazed and generally in awe of all the ways God moved and the miracles he did to save her. I cannot express my joy for her mother, my friend who was at the point of despair when I first posted about their circumstances. It is all just so very very good. We revel in the goodness still, and I think that may go on awhile so forgive me if you get sick of hearing about it. We like revelry when there is such cause as this ok?
October has snuck in with a houseful of sick children which is disappointing but not shocking. Bob was superdad all weekend while I enjoyed a perfect getaway with 2 dear friends. I flew on a plane without children. I ate warm food someone else cooked without once wiping a chin, cutting someone's meat or getting up to fetch condiments napkins or more water for tiny hands. I slept straight through 2 nights in a row folks!!! It was a glimpse of heaven.
Unfortunately for Bob, Boy, Pixie and Sunshine were all sick for at least part of that time. Poor Boy is still miserable and coughing and sad and tired. And has to miss the most important field trip of the year at school tomorrow because he is just too sick. Sunshine got better for a bit but is now fretful and snotty and overtired again which is no fun either. Pixie ran a high fever most of last week and now seems to have generalized her symptoms to pure grumpy impossible-ness with an occasional temperature spike thrown in for good measure. Last night my flight arrived late, and thus I wasn't home until after midnight. Boy and Pixie were both awake, waiting for me. In their beds and quiet, but still awake. And since Boy slept in our bed to keep him from waking Kid and Pixie with his horrendous coughing fits I did not sleep much last night. That is not a complaint, but a factual statement. In light of all that has happened with Brooklyn I have decided I will not complain about sick children this year. Because honestly, what right do I have? They may be sick and cranky and taking care of them may wear me out and frustrate me but guess what? My doctor is 15 minutes away, sees me whenever we need him, answers his cell phone even after hours and has been known to call in a prescription just based on a phone conversation. We have hospitals nearby with all the equipment and expertise I could ever hope for and insurance to pay for it. And no matter how exhausting it may be to care for them and keep the wheels on our daily life, it is beyond unlikely that I will at any point be told my only chance to save their life is to separate myself from them indefinitely and send them thousands of miles away immediately and hope it is soon enough to avert tragedy. That being the case I will simply buy another bottle of children's ibuprofen, hunker down and wait out the snot and the coughing and the grumpy toddler.
If you don't hear from me for a bit, it is doubtless due to the germs my offspring are sharing amongst themselves.
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