Alive and Tapping My Toes

Wednesday, June 1-Morning
Neck deep in the rising tide, fishing crew after fishing crew pulled in empty nets on their final cast of the morning. Usually on shore by this time, they had stayed out longer than usual and still came in empty-handed. As I watched them and did my Bible study I thought, It feels like one of those days.

When Len returned from Malawi a few weeks ago, I was exhausted. It didn't seem that out of place; he had been gone for almost a week and I was thankful for his return. I hadn't been feeling 100% for several weeks, but every so often came a really good day when I felt better and we were functioning well as a family. When you're mostly content and everything is getting done, it's easy to overlook fatigue or a headache.

However, after Len was home and I had a day to really rest and go to bed early, I was feeling worse, not better. I started canceling anything that wasn't mandatory. Len started picking up the kids from school for me.

Wednesday, June 1-Evening

Barnabas quit. It was definitely one of those days.

The next afternoon, I took Henry to the clinic for a blood test. I took a blood test too. He was fine, I had a bacterial infection and started on antibiotic that night.

However, I woke just before midnight and vomited violently until just after 6. Len took me to the clinic that morning and they hooked me up to an IV with fluids and antibiotics. Six litres of fluid and one day later, they finally unhooked me (Saturday night) with the promise that I come back Sunday for more. My appendix was hurting, which made us a bit anxious, but we soon learned it was just from all the infection and vomiting. Thank God!

Monday they gave me more IV antibiotics and took my IV port out.

Tuesday I had an ultrasound that showed kidney stones and an infected kidney, as well as pockets of infection around my abdomen.

Now, four antibiotics later, I'm feeling a little better. Last night we went to a dinner for the school, and I am exhausted. Len has taken the kids for some fun and I'm resting and catching up with you who have loved us with your prayers this last week!

There have been myriad blessings these last weeks as well...friends to help with the kids, we've all learned a lot about kidneys, old and new friends blessing us with prayers and medical and diet advice, new worker possibilities, singing songs from the "Kidney Now" episode of 30 Rock and laughing so hard, and having lots of extra time (I'm in bed much of each day still) to pray in depth, to name just a few. Each day, I am a little better and a little stronger and thankful for the tiniest mercies.

Today I'm just tapping my toes, but soon, soon I hope to be kicking again.

Twin Day

Ruby and best pal Happiness on Twin Day at school

In the Meantime....

As eventful a month as it's been healthwise, life has mostly gone on as usual. Power cuts continue almost daily (as I write this we are four hours into what I hope will be a shortish cut), the kids are finishing up the school year, we continue to prepare to homeschool, and ministry opportunities abound everywhere.

Also of note this month, Ruby's best pal Happiness celebrated her birthday at Dar's theme park, Fantasy Land. This is extremely nice for Dar; there are five inflatable games, two trampolines, a small electric train and a place for parents to sit. It has become party central for the Kindergarten crowd, and the girls had a great time together celebrating this delightful child.

Ruby also took part in her first protest. We are so proud!

That's NO RAIN. She was assigned the role of Ahab in the Kindergarten assembly and shouted out her lines like a true Baal-worshipper. Fortunately, she realizes she is not a Baal-worshipper.

(A note on the protesting front: Len did ask me to back off on telling the kids about some of the things I'm passionate about, after Ruby lectured him that cow milk is for cows, not people, as he ate his milk-drenched cereal one morning. Thank goodness she didn't bring up genetic modification!)

This was one of the more involved assemblies. We were proud of our girl's hard work!

Yesterday, the kids got a lesson in waste management when the sewage removal guys came to clean out our waste wells in the back. They were pretty interested to learn what happens when we flush the toilet.

Don't look too closely, kids!

The men with the pump truck were pleased to be sewer heroes for a day. You can almost hear Chariots of Fire in the background.

We also found one of these huge beetles that had died in a drain, and Henry has been checking its demise several times a day. Pretty interesting forensic stuff going on there. It is about five inches long.

One morning we found a baby bird on the ground; I went into the house to get a box for it but when I came out, another bird was eating it. Circle of life, kids, circle of life. It keeps going on, and this month has been a good reminder to each of us just how small we are in God's big picture.

Milestone-Henry!