***Today’s post contains new information that we would like
to announce before getting started: we are now not only growing our family through
adoption, but Whitney is now also growing a precious gift from God in her womb!
That’s right, we are pregnant and the baby is due at the end of July. Many
people have asked if we are continuing the adoption process, and the answer is “YES,
OF COURSE!” We continue to trust that God knows the perfect timing in welcoming
both of our children into our family and we feel so blessed and excited about
what the Lord has planned for our family.***
The past two weeks have been a physical struggle for our
family. It began last week, on a Monday
morning at 4:30am when my wife and I were awoken to our 2 ½ year old daughter crying
as she began vomiting for the first time.
Her stomach bug quickly spread to my wife and I within 3 hours until all
three of us were doing the same. Only
after many hours of illness were we able to enjoy some Gatorade and saltine
crackers. In addition to the nausea, I had
developed a sinus infection over the weekend that developed into a migrane
headache, body aches and a fever of 102.5.
As for my wife, already nauseated from being pregnant, she was one step
away from going to the hospital for intravenous fluids because she was unable
to hold down a single sip of fluid. We
all stayed in bed watching movies the entire day, as we were too sick to leave the
bedroom.
Fortunately for us, living nearby to family was a
blessing. They brought us Gatorade, Pedialyte
for our daughter, other soda drinks, chicken noodle soup and crackers to help
through the recovery process. While
here, they helped start disaster clean up in our kitchen as we continued to
rest. They brought our dogs to their
house to care for them over the next few days and helped to watch our daughter
for a few hours as she recovered much quickly than us and was too restless to
lay around in a bed all day. Their
assistance undoubtedly sped our recovery process as we returned to normal
health by the end of the week.
However, it didn’t take long until we were all struck again
by medical ailments. Our daughter was first hit with constant eye discharge
which was diagnosed as pink eye only a few days after recovering from the stomach
bug. She was taken to the doctor by
family while we worked (since we had already missed so much work from the
stomach bug) and started on antibiotic eye drops. The following day my wife developed a painful
sore throat, mild fever, abdominal pain, and a cough which quickly progressed
and worsened. Her doctor examined her
and suspected she had a strand of the flu, not a strand protected by her flu
vaccine, and possibly gall bladder disease.
She was quickly scheduled for an ultrasound of her gallbladder the next
day. Unfortunately, due to her pregnancy
and the viral cause of her flu symptoms, she was limited to treatment options of
rest, fluids, Tylenol and some other over the counter medications which provided
minimal relief. Fortunately, her
ultrasound was negative and her abdominal pain quickly resolved, but after 1
week she continues to battle her flu symptoms.
Having close contact to one another, her flu quickly spread
and caught hold of me. On top of
developing her flu symptoms, I developed a secondary sinus infection as well. Although the sinus infection led to a severe
fever, I had more medication options since I was not the one pregnant including
tamiflu, an antibiotic, ibuprofen and Tylenol.
Unfortunately, the medication still didn’t prevent the development of a
fever that peaked to 103.4. Our house
and life quickly fell to ruin as we yet again, lay immobilized in bed,
coughing, throats painful, lymph nodes swollen, trying to rest but unable to
sleep, and going through boxes of tissue like water as we tried to stay
hydrated and allow our bodies to recover.
The illness took a toll on our bodies and life causing us to
both miss days from work, piling dirty dishes by the sink, filling up the
hamper and floor with dirty clothes and tissues scattered throughout the house. There were moments when we thought we weren’t
going to get better or would need to be hospitalized.
Fortunately, we had the support of loving family and friends,
yet again, who cooked us chicken noodle soup, stocked us up on various soft
drinks, cooked or purchased and brought over dinner, took our daughter for the
day and/or night as we tried to rest, cared for our dog’s to lessen our load at
home, and drove us to doctor’s appointments.
We even had family drive through the night and stay with us to care for
our daughter, cook meals, clean our house, clean our dishes and replenish our
supply of clean clothes by cleaning our laundry. If we needed something, there was always
someone available to run the errand for us.
We received endless phone calls from friends and requests to help in any
way they could. The love and support we received was so appreciated and greatly
needed in our time of weakness and illness.
We can’t fathom how our course of illness, nutrition, or house would
appear had we not had the support we did.
As my body fought the infection and illness, I couldn’t help
but think about our little girl in Ethiopia.
How different would her experience be if she battled the same illness we
had and continue to recover from. Would
she have any medical care or medication options to help her feel better while
she fought her illness? Would she have a
bed to lay in or would she have the only option of a dirt floor among rodents
in a non insulated shack? Would she be
lucky enough to have a meal daily? To
get a meal daily, would she have to walk a distance or would someone bring it
to her? Would water or some type of
fluid be available to her to stay hydrated?
Would the water be clean or just add more toxins or things for her body
to fight? Would someone be present to hold
a cool towel on her forehead as she fought a fever, encourage her to drink
fluids to replace that she lost from nausea, comfort and hold her as she coughed,
or take her to a doctor to diagnose her illness and pick up medications that
would speed her recovery?
Although I asked myself those questions, I already knew the
answers. The answers broke my heart. As horrible as we felt, I couldn’t help but
think how much worse it must be for our precious girl in Ethiopia. How much I want to be there for her when she is
sick. How much I want to get her medical
care so she won’t have to fight it alone.
How much I want to hold her and tell her she will be okay if she
struggled through an illness. Instead, I
am a 17 hour flight away from being capable of providing any of those comforts
to her. I must rely on and pray that God
will keep her safe when life is dangerous, give her courage when she scared,
provide her strength when she is weak, and comfort her when she is ill. As much as I desired for God to return me to
good health, I wanted more for him to bring my daughter to me so she doesn’t
have to experience one more illness alone.
She can’t be home soon enough in my heart. I miss her and I wish I could see her daily
as I see my wife and our biological child. As we drove to Charleston, WV today still
feeling horrible from the flu to get our federal fingerprints made, we knew
that we were one step closer to bringing our sweet girl home, yet at the same
time we still feel so far away. Please pray that God will continue to work for
us in this adoption process and bring her home to us soon.
“Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; Save me, and I
shall be saved,
For You are my praise.” Jermiah 17:14
