A Restless Few Nights

We have had a restless few nights in the Fowler family this week. I came down with a strange virus on Monday night. I felt sick on my stomach and very achy...as if I had the flu. About 24 hours later, although I was extremely weak, I was feeling much better. I broke out in a rash and kept that for a good day, and then it was all over. Julia got sick on Tuesday night. She developed a stuffy nose and by the middle of the night, had a pretty bad case of crupe. I ended up taking her to the emergency room about 3 am because we tried all the interventions we could at home, but she still was not breathing well enough. They ended up giving her an oral steroid to open her passageway for breathing and then we got home around 5 am. She has maintained a pretty bad head cold and a dry cough now, but praise God, she is breathing well. Joel got the virus next, on Wednesday night. We have had such a wonderful bout of health since we have changed our eating habits and putting the children on some really good vitamins. Both Jonathan and I have been dreading this moment when Julia and Joel would get sick again. They both have had such difficulty healthwise and we have had such scares with them. Joel had a bad bout with breathing Thursday morning, around 5am. I got him up and gave him a breathing treatment. It didn't work as quickly as I would have liked and he was still having difficulty breathing. Jonathan was at PT and there was no way I could get in touch with him to bring back the van in case I needed to take him to the hospital. I put a blanket around Joel and we went outside to sit in the cool morning air. I sat there praying for him, that God would cause him to breathe well again. And within a minute, my son who was laboring so hard to breathe, just calmed down and began breathing normally again. Since then, he has done so very well. He is still sick and coughing some, and the crupe is always worst on the third night, so we are praying that he gets through this evening without anymore ER visits. Even though we have been sick this week, there is still great blessing. Joel has physically handled this sickness so much better than he has so many others in the past. I am so very grateful to God for that. It is so hard to see little ones sick and know how utterly helpless you are to correct the situation. Please continue to pray for our family as we try to get over this sickness. So far, the other children and Jonathan have remained well. Pray that they stay well. God bless and we love you all!