So~ I should be at church right now.  Instead, I’m at home sitting here at my desk trying to wrap my brain around what has happened to my boys.  To say that they are sick is an understatement.  It all started with Micah (-which seems to be the trend around here-) when he came down with a fever.  In addition, his symptoms included niagara nose and watery eyes.  The very next day, Titus fell victim.  He had fever, loss of appetite, stuffy nose, sore throat, coughing, loss of voice, and darth vader breathing.  We could hear the poor thing all night.  He definitely has had it the worst.  And just when I thought I had kept it contained, Manu came into our room in the middle of the night and he was burning hot with fever.  Apart from a miracle, going anywhere today was not an option.

I have obviously been trying to nurse them back to health for a few days now, but this morning I kicked things into high gear.  After Israel left for Marquette church, I took turns giving each of them a hot-half bath, warm lemon-honey water, their vitamin, and a nice slather of the cure-all for any sickness or disease, vicks.  I made sure their fevers were under control, their room was warm, and I tucked them into bed again.  Now, the house is quiet. 

It sounds easy since I crammed all of that information into two swift sentences, but it definitely was a battle.  The process which in my mind would produce the best odds of them getting better was in fact a torturous ordeal for them.  They didn’t want to take an uncomfortably hot bath.  They didn’t want to get doused with cold water.  They didn’t want to blow their nose.  They didn’t want to get into bed.  They didn’t want to drink all of the tea.  And of course, they didn’t want to go right back to sleep.  Trust me, the list could continue…

But I totally had an ace up my sleeve. 

Although the boys weren’t thrilled to comply, they ultimately did because they trusted that if they just endured the things I was putting them through, they would get what they really wanted.  At least this is what I kept reminding them over and over again.  And what they’ve wanted, and have been wanting for the past 3 weeks, was to be alive and kicking on Sunday, March 27, 2011 from 11am-3pm for Kaelan’s birthday pool-party.  This, folks, is why the house is actually quiet.  Some would call this a miracle in its own right.     

It made me think of those things that I’ve been really wanting in life and where I am right now.  It sometimes seems that trials and set-backs seem to threaten those very things.  But I’m reminded over and over again to see the bigger picture and to remember that overcoming these things will actually strengthen me to get me there. 

And I’m hoping and praying that this will help get them there too.  Tomorrow is gonna be their first pool party and it would be an absolute shame if they had to miss it.  Prayers welcome.