Update on Bright

I apologize for the lack in communication this past week!! It would take me all day to attempt to catch you all up on the details of the past seven days.. so Ill spare my fingers and your eyes!! The good news: God is still sovereign and in control :) He is always providing, always leading and always shepherding our hearts :)

Heres an overview of our week since Weds night at 10p...

Near the end of small group on Weds night, Bright was being clingy and refusing to eat/drink and felt a little warm. We figured he was just tired from playing so hard upstairs with the other kids and the Coopers. By the time we got home... it was like he got hit by a mack truck. He was running a 102 temperature, was lathargic, shivering and whimpering. We put him in the bath to cool him down and got some motrin in him to bring down his temp and still his body. He fell asleep on me after his bath, which never happens.. all he wanted to do was be held and not to play or anything. He slept through the night but woke up on and off yesterday morning.

Thurs.. Bright spent most of the day on little bits of pedialyte as he threw up all over me (literally) and all over himself. Needless to say we took several showers together yesterday. All he ate was 3 crackers all day and drank maybe 1 sippy cup worth of pedialyte. He took like 4 naps (which usually he takes 1 maybe 2.) Still running a fever and had a bad fever blister in the corner of his mouth and was pulling on his right ear. He went to bed early because he was exhausted, so was I.

This morning... Bright woke up around 730a fussy and clingy again. He did eat some banana and kept it down. He was thirsty again which was good. No fever but had more pimples all around his mouth and nose.. his face was swollen too. In the time that I ran to the post office and the bank this morning... he was breaking out head to toe, crying a lot and refusing to drink/eat again. I called the pediatrician.. they got us in within 15 mins (I LOVE CAPITOL PEDIATRICS!!) By the time I had undressed him there... his entire little body looked like it was on fire (blisters and chaffing... even in his hair!)

So the diagnosis: HFM disease (again!!) A Stomach Bug, Fluid behind and inflammation of the rt ear drum, a yeast infection on his bottom and excema on his scalp and back :(

Supposedly he caught it from another child... the drs said its been spreading like wildfire the past 3 weeks!! I know I should take comfort in the fact that all the sickness is just preparing him for kindergarten and toughening up his immune system... thats hard to digest when your heart hurts so bad you feel like you could die... thats the closest way to describe when your own flesh and blood is suffering :( No one prepares you or can prepare you for it, its just another thing you learn and cling to Jesus for once that little baby comes out of your belly!!

Heres an excerpt of an email that I just sent my accountability girls:

I realized this morning as Jesus and I were talking in the car... that I need to be prepared to accept my life as constant trials and commanded obligations... because since the beginning of Oct its felt like its all been a non stop whirlwind. I need to be willing to accept this as how life is (purposed by Him) and not just a season.. because Ive been spending the last couple weeks with this mindset of "persevering" that it will all be over with soon!! But the Lord never says it will all come to an end while we are here on earth... He calls us to endure and long for the "real end" which is waiting for us when He takes us home!! This may sound real simple, trivial and is something that I've known: but today, its profound!! I cant live each day waiting and longing for short term goals to be achieved (if we can just get through all this till graduation, etc.) The amazing thing is that it hasn't all felt "stressful" which alone is Gods hand for all the things we have been through together (I am known to freak out in this kind of sin!!) I long to keep going and keep clinging to Him... but I need to do it because NOT ONE THING COMPARES TO HIM (not even 1/8 of something).. I dont want to keep on trucking simply because I think itll be over soon (survival mentality!!) Heartache is soo good when it draws us back to Him... even when it makes you feel like youre going to vomit and your gut reaction is to run away!!-- sorry that was a little too graphic but cant be worded another way!!