we need prayer.

The past two days were a little nightmarish.

David got sick Friday morning, and I followed on Friday afternoon.  Not sure how it happened that we both got so sick almost simultaneously with differing things.  But by Friday night we were each laying on a sofa, shivering with fevers, nauseated, and achey.

Throughout Friday night I was rushing to the bathroom and blacking out almost every time I got up.  We talked on the Vonage phone with company doctors, and they urged me to get to the hospital.  I can’t describe the dread I have of South Asian hospitals right now (no, they are not all bad; yes, I’m probably just not in an emotional frame of mind to deal with them).

So Saturday morning our dear friends-and-nurses, John and Alison, rescued us.  They brought antibiotics.  Providentially, they have four interns staying with them right now, one of whom is an ER nurse in Memphis.  So she and John brought fluids and supplies and hooked me up to an IV right in my own bed.  They hung the bag from our laundry rack.

While I slept throughout the day, Jonathan came and took David to the hospital for tests.  He has some sort of bacterial infection.  It took most of the day to stand in lines and wait for the tests he needed; when he got home at 5 pm, he was so sick and utterly exhausted.

By that time I’d had three bags of fluids and felt remarkably better, though still couldn’t keep much food down.

There are several bright spots in this story:

1.  I feel so deeply, words-cannot-express grateful for our friends here, who, once again took care of us.  This has happened many, many times over the last year-and-a-half with all my sickness, and they never complain.  They have never once made me or our family feel like a burden.

2. Keira the intern, my cheerful, blond angel, who happened to be here to help turn our bedroom into a hospital room.  The other two interns and Kendra who helped take care of our kids.

3. Alison took Judah and Amie to her house for the whole day.  Neither David or I could even budge from bed to feed them breakfast, so Alison came and picked them up, then came back to sit with me throughout the afternoon while David was at the hospital.  She brought me Gatorade with ice cubes and changed my IV bags and helped me talk through what we need to pack so I wouldn’t feel overwhelmed.

The kids ate pancakes and pizza, watched movies, played with Joshua and Caleb, had baths.  Judah told Alison, “This is such a fun day!”  Amie told everyone, “My mommy is getting a shot!”  They came home at bed-time, smiling and happy, bearing get-well gifts for David and me: leaves and a stone from Judah, and a flower from Ams.

It was a gift that Judah and Amie got one more unexpected day with their friends, who all left this morning for a public health class in another state.  We won’t be seeing them for a long time, so I’m so grateful they have such a sweet memory.

[Another note: Alison said as Judah and Joshua were saying their good-bye last night, Judah said, “You wanna Skype on me?” Joshua said “Yep! But I’m going away first, so I’ll Skype on you, then you can Skype on me.”]

4.  Many other friends called, texted, offered to come help, prayed, and will start visiting us today.

So.  Today is a brand new day.

David and I feel better with our antibiotics starting to kick in.  We’re both up and showered this morning and the first load of laundry is in.

My heart is aching with our good-byes, and many more to come in the next three days.

Will you pray for us?

Please pray that we will heal and grow stronger for the plane trip on Tuesday, that the kids will stay healthy.  Please pray that we’ll see our friends and have sweet last moments and that I’ll be able to hold it together.  I feel right now that if I start crying I may never stop.

This isn’t the way I wanted this story to happen.