Sickness reflections.

I mentioned in my last post that Norah and I had food poisoning last week (wow, what a terrible thing), and I am so glad we are over it. Health is something I take for granted far too often. I am very thankful for a healthy family. Our bodies truly are miracles, each one a work of art!

Saturday (actually two Saturdays ago now that I'm posting this) I woke up in the night to Norah crying/whimpering. I looked on the monitor (I've heard other moms say they ditched their monitors and never looked back, but I am a lover of it!), and instantly saw that she had thrown up. Lovely. I went into her room and felt so terrible for her- she had a confused look on her face like, "What is the world is happening? What is all over me? Look at this. This is awful." I was equally feeling the awfulness, as I am not a vomit person. I will take snot or poop any day, but I just can't handle vomit. I was going to try to clean it up by myself, as Kley had to wake up for early to play on the worship team at church, but the smell basically blew my head back as soon as I opened the door. (I know you really want all these details). Anyways, let's just cut to the chase and say that I woke up Kley, we took shifts throughout the night, and poor Norah threw up 12 times that night. She was so tired after awhile that she would fall asleep on our laps and just wake up vomiting. After the first few times, she just quietly whined that she wanted to be all done over and over. It was the saddest thing.

Somewhere in the night I got it too, but not near as bad as Norah. Kley was so helpful in taking care of Norah while I laid in bed until around lunch when I could finally stand again. I felt better pretty quickly after that, but it took Norah a couple days.

On Monday morning I ended up bringing her to the ER, just to make sure she wasn't dehydrated. She had barely ate or drank in the last two days (and what she did mostly came back up), and she hadn't peed in 14 hours, or pooped in days. Thankfully, everything turned out fine and she perked up while actually in the ER. She finally started drinking and eating a little, which was so good. Monday morning she was laying on the floor, literally staring off moaning, and Monday lunch she seemed much more like her normal self. I've never been so excited to change a wet diaper in my life.

Anyways, I feel like this sickness grew me as a mom. My greatest take away is that I am so thankful that Norah trusts me (and Kley), and views us as a necessity and a comfort. I remember how much I looked to my mom to help me when I was sick while growing up, and now I understand as a mom myself how scary/sad it is to watch your baby to be sick and not know how to fix it or if you can fix it. I was really scared walking into the ER, not knowing what would happen, but Norah didn't know that. She held my hand and nuzzled her head into my shoulder and trusted that I would protect and comfort her. There are many times as a mom where I don't know what I am doing, but Norah thinks I do. Even if I can't physically fix it, I am so glad that I can be there to comfort.

Parents have a special comforting gift when their kids are sick. I thought my mom knew everything when I was young, and now Norah thinks I know everything. I prayed out loud over her body as she was throwing up, that He would bring healing. What a great opportunity to show our kids our dependence on Him (we definitely don't have strength to do this life alone!) and that we are surrendering to His sovereignty. Being there tells her that I see her, I will help her, and she doesn't have to go through this alone. And that's exactly what I want to teach her about Jesus too- He sees you, He will help you, and He will never leave you alone.

Norah, I am so glad you are healthy again!