Wednesday, June 25, 2014

just call me typhoid Mary

Life is crazy. Wild. Unpredictable. And surprising.
I have gone through these last four weeks with a perpetual look of incredulity
on my face.
Eyes wide. Mouth slightly agape. Slightly stunned.
Somehow my oldest son, Jack, became exposed to a virulent strain of salmonella bacteria at
the end of May.
It sent him to the ER for IV fluids from the resulting stomach upset and high fever.
The kind of stomach upset where you are not sure you will make it to the bathroom in time.
The sad kind.
It lasted for a week.
We thought we kicked it. Until 2 weeks later Addison got it.
Right after we landed in Colorado for our summer vacation.
Addie spent the first week of vacation on the couch sipping Gatorade
and lamenting the fact that only Will got to play with the cousins.
There were tears. A lot of them were mine.
The day before we were supposed to fly back to California, Will got it.
The onset was swift and violent.
I broke down and wept in front of my parents. And they prayed strength and peace over me.
Their love buoyed me up. I wiped my eyes and went to don my latex cleaning gloves
and to get out the ibuprofen one more time.
Scott, Jack and Addie flew home.
And Will and I stayed for another 5 days. Until his fever died down and his stomach settled.
These two weeks of vacation were spent in a haze of Clorox wipes and Lysol cans and my
frantic pleas of "Don't touch anything!" And "Don't get too close to Grandma!" and
"Sweet Jesus, help us!"
I have read more books in this past two weeks that I have in the past two years.
So, there is an upside to being quarantined, I guess.
I have also prayed more in the last two weeks than I have in a long time.
And I have invited others to join me.
I texted my sisters the night before I flew,
"Please pray that I don't get it while we are flying and have a blow out on the plane."
Now most of you have not ever thought of praying to not have a blowout or if you have,
you have never thought to include others in that prayer.
But then maybe you have never come into contact with my dark enemy, salmonellosis.
Those of you who have caught a parasite over seas or
who have drank the water on mission to Mexico trip know what I am talking about.
You need a formidable prayer covering when you are up against a microbe like this.
A strong hedge of antibacterial prayer to hem you in from all sides.
We made it home without event. Praise the glorious name of Jesus!
And so far, I have been able to hold out against the raging sickness.
I believe this is only by the hand of God. And the fact that I have washed my hands
so many times that I no longer have an epidermis.
There is that.
So all that to say. Summer has gotten off to somewhat of a crazy start.
I have had to cancel the kid's writing camp I was going to do in July along
with several appointments. We are still on lock down with Will so as not to
spread this madness to anyone else.
But I am thankful.
I am home. My boys survived a very serious illness.
We are all together as a family again.
The hydrangeas in my backyard are blooming better than they ever have before.
With the daily wipe downs, my house is going to be cleaner than it has ever been. Ever.
And my prayer life...it is booming. I have been talking to Jesus all day long for almost a month now.
He is keeping us in his hand. This I know to be true.
When I texted my mom to tell her that we were home safe, she answered,
"God is good!" And that is the truth.
I know Jesus is going to get us through. He always does.
My dad told me when we left, "Better days are ahead!"
And I am banking on it.
That and on the fact that Lysol  kills 99.9% of bacteria that it comes in contact with.
So that being said, summer....here we come!

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