A call for prayer.....

We all do things we aren't proud of in times of frustration. I've learned over the years to try and make those moments few and far between because years later I don't want to cringe at the thought of it. I'm also a person who has to have closure. I have never been able to walk away from arguments, accusations, or being wronged without coming to a happy medium. I am a sensitive yet strong person. My main philosophy in life is to think of others before myself, of which I've tried my hardest to do. I can't walk away from someone who is hurting no matter who that person is. If I see someone in pain my heart breaks for that person, and I don't want to leave their side until they are at least smiling again; I tend to carry their burden as well, even if it's someone I'm not close. I've gone through my share of pain over the years and whatever I can do to keep someone else from hurting I will. But there are also those who have chosen not to have a relationship with me, or we just didn't get along, or I've had to walk away from; still I think of each one of those people every day, wishing I could fix things, or just make things right.

 I'm by far NOT a perfect person nor will I ever claim to be. Actually I'm probably one of the most flawed people you will ever meet, which is why I have such a need for Jesus Christ as my Savior. If I was perfect I wouldn't need Him, but it seems like the more that time goes by, the worse I need Him. I don't know if I can blame my revaluation on the fact that I turned 30 this year, but in the last year I've come to some heartbreaking realizations. The world is hateful and they do NOT play fair or nice! While our family is overall happy, Nathan and I have a great marriage and friendship, and our children are happy and loved; we have had a really strange and trying few years. It seems like we can't catch a break in life and no matter what we do or how we respond we get the same reaction from everyone-vengeance!

 Why things like this have been happening to use I have no idea maybe God is testing us, or maybe Satan is trying to keep our family from blessing others; however, something has to give! In the last year, we have had the most unbelievable things happen to us:

 For 5 years, Nathan finished his degree, was a youth pastor, worship pastor, and pastor of christian education. He was made several promises that people would help him start a church, or help him to be ordained and everything fell through. After he finally was ordained, we got to the point that we were so burned out and hurt from "The Church" that we had to have time to heal. We began going to a home-church and slowed way down on doing any type of ministry, and eventually didn't have a home church at all.

In December, I had a falling out with some family members and while we were able to reconcile with some, there are others that we have not.

 In January, I began struggling with postpartum depression. My husband couldn't work because I couldn't take care of the kids. I was in bed for weeks, unable to get up, and then at times I would go for days unable to sleep and started having panic attacks. Nathan finally convinced me to call my OBGYN to make an appointment. When I couldn't make it to that appointment, I called to re-schedule and they said I would have to speak with the billing office. I was transferred to the billing office and the lady told me we owed $30.00 and they would not reschedule my appointment until we paid it. Honestly at that moment I had no idea what we had in our account even though I do the bills. Since I wasn't able to hardly function the last several weeks I was behind on paying things, it wasn't that we didn't have the money it was just that I needed to sit down and look at what needed paid vs. what we had. So I told the lady I would pay it by the end of the month (2 weeks). She said she wanted a payment now and that if we didn't pay now, I couldn't make an appointment and they would send us to Collections. I was confused since I had make a payment the month before I didn't think it would be that huge of a deal. She again argued with me that the bill came out in September and even though we made payments they count it as being 4 month past due because it wasn't paid in full!! I again told her I've been there for 7 years, I've had 5 children at that practice and I've never not paid my bills, please just give me a few weeks I really needed the appointment and It would be paid before I even showed up to be seen. Again she threatened to send it to collections. I got off the phone in tears, feeling like I couldn't get any help! So my husband called her. Again she argued with him and told him the same things and finally after an hour said, "well I guess we could hold the account for two weeks!" So then there was the fact that I needed to be seen. She said she spoke with her supervisor and he said I can't make an appointment till we paid! And was very rude! I tried getting a hold of my doctor thinking that if she just knew the situation she would understand and help out, but she never called me back. Finally Nathan was so upset that no one would help me he gathered up 30.00 in change and took it to the office to pay our bill. While I wasn't happy about his actions I knew he just wanted to get help for his wife who he saw suffering. Two days later I received a certified letter in the mail saying they are refusing to treat me anymore and I need to find another doctor. My heart was completely broken! I couldn't understand how something so innocent as someone trying to get help, turned into this! Yes maybe Nathan shouldn't have gone up there but we were desperate! What bothered me the most is that my doctor didn't even call. After being our physician for 7 years, and never having a problem before this she didn't even wonder why this happened?? The ironic thing is that I had put together a little gift to take to her on my next visit to show her how much I appreciated her.

 In March, we got our trash can repossessed. YES! It wasn't because we didn't pay the bill, it was because they forgot to pick up our trash! Because we have a large family with lots of diapers, we can easily fill up four large trash cans! However we are only allowed to have two. We took our trash down to be picked up one day and they didn't pick it up. Unfortunately we didn't notice it until Friday after business hours so we were unable to call until Monday. They argued with us saying their driver marked it as picked up, but here we had two cans full! For a normal size family it wouldn't be such a huge deal, but for us it is. When our cans are full and we have to put them on the porch, cats and other animals tear into it and then we spend the whole next morning picking it all up! So my husband asked if they could send someone out to pick it up. They told him that they would send him to the voicemail of the owner and he could leave a message. He left a message asking for a call back. The next day...they came and REPOSSESSED our trash can!! When he called to ask why, we were told it was because of a customer service issue and the owner decided to close our account. NO phone call, NOTHING!!

 Now it is April...the last three weeks we've had a virus going through all our kids. We were in a hospital or medical facility 8 our of 9 days, and we were exhausted! Then Nathan's back condition started to get worse. He decided that maybe he needed to get another injection for pain so that we can put off his surgery longer. He called right before the kids got sick and scheduled an appointment. When our daughter ended up in the ER he called to reschedule for the next day but again missed that appointment when we were in the ER again! Now that everyone is finished and well, he called yesterday and apologized for missing his appointment and let them know it was cause our daughter was in the hospital. They scheduled him for an appointment TODAY 4/26/2012 at 2:30pm. Because of the type of injection he has to have a driver after the procedure. So we loaded up 5 children 6 and under, and drove 30 minutes away for our appointment. When we got there I was going to stay in the car with the kids but Pumpkin had to go potty so I unloaded everyone and decided to go up there. When we walked into the office to find Nathan, he was still sitting at a reception desk with a lady behind it talking rudly to him. I asked what was going on and she says, "we do not have an appointment scheduled for him today, but there was one scheduled on the 12th which was rescheduled for the 13th and he didn't show. He also had an appointment scheduled for 4/26/2011 a year ago today at 2:30 but NOT today!" I was so frustrated! I asked her " do you really think that we would drive 30 minutes with 5 children without an appointment?" She says, "even if you did you need a referral which you don't have, and the person he was suppose to see isn't even here today!" I told her that wasn't true, our insurance was open access and we didn't have to have an referral and again she argued with me. She then told me I wasn't being professional, at which I said, "I'm not the one who is employed here to be professional you are." Then she stood up and walked away! 10 minutes later in walks four huge security guards!! SHE CALLED SECURITY ON US!!! The kids were screaming, running crazy in the office, the woman was standing behind the counter with her arms crossed giving a look like "ha, you got yours" and I just broke down crying in the middle of the office sobbing like a baby!! I told her she didn't even try to help us, she was just determined to make this hard, and she should be ashamed of herself that she would do something like this in front of our children!! The kids were scared, I was upset and it was uncalled for! Instead of trying to figure out why our appointment was scheduled for 2011 or asking the new person they hired why she messed up or even trying to fit us in she just wanted to get rid of us!! We also saw the nurse practitioner who we were told was not there, peering through a window at us! I just can't grasp what is happening around us, but as I looked at that lady with tears flowing down my cheeks I just kept thinking "why would she do something like this to us? I would have NEVER done this to her no matter who she was!" This is what always goes through my head when this crazy stuff happens to us, " I would have NEVER treated you this way!"

 Unfortunately the world doesn't care about what our family is going through, or how things effect our family, or even how sincere we are. Someone reminded me a few months ago that the bible says, "do not cast your pearls before swine." I never really understood that saying until recently, but now I've realized that what I value others may not. I value peoples feelings, their hearts, their time, their friendships....but most people don't value those same things. It's not easy living in a world full of people who treat you like you are not valuable.

 I am still struggling with postpartum and really feel like I'm drowning most days, but I have faith now more than ever that God has big things coming our way. While I am a strong person, and I know I can get through this...I'm still human and need support and friends, and most of all PRAYER!! I feel that in my darkest days, everyone had disappeared. No one wants to be around someone who is always having crazy things happen to them, and is always needing venting sessions.

I keep telling myself that this is our Year of Jubilee (or Jubili).  Our 7th year of marriage, in which we had a child named Jubili (Jubilee), and this is the year we will prosper the most!!  In the old testament the 7th year they didn't grow ANY crops, they let their fields rest so that the next year they would have an abundance of fruit!  Hopefully through these trials that is what God is doing with our family!  All we want to do in life is to serve God, and serve his people, but we just keep getting knocked back.  So if you have read this far, our family could really use your prayers.  We really need an army of brothers and sisters in Christ praying for us right now!  Please pray for divine intervention in our lives and God's guidance along with some PEACE!!

No Fevers today!!

Today has been the first day in three weeks that NO ONE has a fever! PRAISE GOD, I can see the light!! I'm so thankful for all our friends and family who have been praying for our mini's to get better! While it still takes us about 30 minutes to pass out medications in the morning and at bedtime, we have been able to cut off 10 minutes by not having to take temperatures now! Now that we have everyone well, our next step is to get everyone well-rested and back on schedule so we can finish our our school year! We have put off so much school the last few months because of sickness it is probably a good thing we do homeschooling or they would be so behind right now! Good thing we can use the summer to catch them up, and the fact that we are a whole year ahead helps a lot as well! Poor kids have been so exhausted during the day, I've managed to lose a few of them around our small house, and the only way I was able to find them was to follow the sound of snoring. During our weeks of sickness, I had the blow up mattress in the living room for those we needed to look after through the night. One day I couldn't find Sweet-pea (1yr) and was searching everywhere! Finally I heard the faint sound of snoring and followed it to the end of the bed. She was laying on the floor in the four inch space between the television and the blow-up mattress sound asleep! So 7:00-7:30 has become the new bedtime for a few days until they can get rested, and back on their nap schedule. Staying on a schedule for us has become a necessity, especially during the school year! I guess you can say we are more of routine people, because if we start late I still try to do things in the same order for the same length of time during the day. I try my best to always keep at least meal times, nap times, and bedtimes consistent. Everything else we try our best at! So this week my goal is to get our sleep schedules back in sync, I'm officially off third-shift duty, and back on days with my husband! Praying for a better week so we can shape up and get things back to normal!!

Organization has been KEY!!

So my husband tells me today is Wednesday, I've completely lost track of the days! The last three weeks is more of a blur at this point. The only way I've been able to keep track of what day it is, is that I haven't been to the hospital in the last two days with anyone!

Yesterday, Goobies, Pumpkin, and Hobble-bobble all woke with fevers. Pumpkin's throat was so swollen she could hardly talk! We made an appointment with the pediatrician and went that afternoon. They tested all three for Strep, and all three were negative. Pumpkin has tonsillitis pretty bad, her tonsils are very swollen, Goobies also had tonsillitis with two ear infections, and Hobble-bobble only had a red throat.

After their appointment I dropped all the kids home with daddy, and went on my mission to pick up: wipes, diapers, soap, cleaner, library books, fill prescriptions, and pick up groceries.

Organization has been a KEY ingredient to juggling everything the last few weeks. I've not had the best track record for staying organized, but when it comes to my kids I have to make myself! We are completely blessed that my husband has such a flexible job, and is able to be with us during the day when we have hard times like this! So Nathan has been taking the morning/early afternoon shift, and I have been on evening/night shift. I'm usually up until 6:30am (that's when everyone has finally settled down), and then when Nathan gets up around 8:00am, I go to bed. We have two white boards in the kitchen, one for recording the time each temperature was taken, and when they received their fever medications; the other to record when they have received their normal daily medications, and antibiotics. Each kid has a plastic baggie with their name on it, along with their measuring device to use for their medicine; we also have a cup for each kid with a piece of masking tape and their name on it so they don't drink after each other right now!

So far today, we've had two hit 104.7 but we've managed to get the fevers under control with continuous rotation of motrin, tylenol, and tepid baths!

I'm so thankful for a husband who is so hands on and loves our children just as much as I do! I realize that there aren't a lot of fathers out there who want to change diarrhea diapers, clean up vomit, give baths and keep track of when medications were last handed out, and I'll be the first one to say my girls have an amazing daddy! I can only pray that they find a husband who is just as loving to their own children! While most people would be out of their minds right now, we have found humor, happiness, love and patience within this situation. We've all grown so much closer since we've had individual time with each child, and Nathan and I even though we've been exhausted have made time for each other even it it was only 10 minutes of sitting on the couch together. Although it's been a lot of work, I'm completely thankful for the time we've had together as a family and wouldn't trade it for anything!

Another night in the ER.......

After such a fun-filled week the last two weeks, it looks like we haven't quite seen the end of things yet!

Saturday evening Sweet-pea came down with a high fever. I decided not to wait around on it and be sent to the ER this time, so I got her dressed and headed to Kidmed (our pediatric emergency care center). My experience there was horrid! When we arrived there were several people waiting to be seen. I signed her in, filled out paperwork and then sat holding her on my lap. She was lethargic and her cheeks were bright red. After about 15 minutes of waiting she starts coughing, and then vomits all over the front of my shirt and the chunks fall into my lap. I look over and the girl at the desk next to me was just staring in shock. She finally points over at the wall and tells me I can get up and grab a bag off the wall for her to vomit in again. I kinda give her this look like "do you not see the huge puddle of vomit that is in my lap?" and she finally jumps up and grabs me a bag. She brings me some wipes and as I begin to wipe the vomit from Sweet-pea she says "oh don't wipe her with that it will break her skin out!!" I then gather the chunks off my lap and make my way to the bathroom...Sweet-pea in one arm, my bags in the other. I cleaned myself off, and changed Sweet-pea into a hospital gown. When I came out I saw a nurse standing there talking to someone having a personal conversation. By this time Sweet-pea was just MISERABLE! She didn't want me to hold her, but she didn't want me to put her down, and she just didn't know what to do except cry! So I just scoop her up, cradle her and rock her while pacing around the floor. 15 minutes later she is burning up! I ask the lady at the desk how much longer before they can get us back and she says, "it should only be one to two more minutes" at that point I was thinking if they didn't come soon I might need to just go to the ER. A minute later the nurse who had been in her long personal conversation, turns to me and says, "is this Sweet-pea, I came out here for her but I just got to talking" I WAS LIVID!!!!

Once we got back to be seen they looked in her ears and said she had a double ear infection, swollen throat, and temp of 104.7. They took a strep test, flu test, and x-rays. Strep and flu came back negative, but the x-ray showed pneumonia in her right lung. The doctor wanted to give her an IV, take some blood work, and then re-test her pulse-ox levels to see where we were. If they were high numbers on her blood work or her pulse-ox was low she wanted to send her to the hospital.

The nurse came in to do the IV and take blood work. Sweet-pea started screaming the minute they came in the door! I lied down beside her and held her while they straightened her arm to put in the IV. The nurse put the needle in without a line attached to catch her blood that started pouring out all over the place. Once she finally got the line screwed on she took the blood they needed. Once she was finished she took off the tube put it next to her, and bumped the IV tearing it from Sweet-pea's arm!! Blood sprayed all over my face, glasses, and Sweet-pea's face; it was all over the bed, the floor and the nurse! It was terrible!!

I decided since she had screamed enough I didn't want them to put the IV back in unless her blood work came back showing she was dehydrated, which it did not. The doctor gave us some antibiotics, a shot, and sent us on our way!

Monday she woke up with a low temperature of 99. By 11:30 it hit 104.7 and we gave her motrin. 3:00 it was 104.7 so we gave her tylenol, and at 3:30 it went up to 105.0! We called the pediatrician and they immediately told us to come in! We got there around 4pm. Again they checked her ears...which were fine- no infection. Checked her throat...which she had tonsillitis...and rechecked for flu and strep which was still negative. They re-drew her blood and said there was no change from what they drew Saturday which was not good! So they sent us to the ER to get fluids and be watched over night.

We got to the ER around 7pm. They were packed! We did not get called back until around 11:30. They even had hospital beds with patients in the hallways it was so packed!! They did more blood work, and another x-ray her temp was 104.7, and she was inconsolable! I spent 7 hours holding a fussy, crying baby! They gave her an IV, and told us the x-rays did show she still had pneumonia. They wanted to see what her blood work showed and was told it would take about an hour. THREE hours later, they finally came and told us she looked like she was hydrated, they would change her medication and send her home.

While we were there, the little boy next to us had a seizure. His mom asked us how high Sweet-pea's fever had gotten and when we told her 105, she said her son's hit 108 and that he had a seizure. They told her that it was from a stomach bug and he has had them ever since!! When we were about to leave we asked the doctor, "at what point is her fever dangerous?" She says, "no fever is dangerous" Nathan asked, "so 105-108 isn't dangerous?" she says "OH no ones body can have a fever of 108- you are talking heat stroke then, so don't worry about that!" At this point that doctor lost all credibility to me! I have a worried mother telling me her son just had a fever of 108 and then a doctor telling me that 108 wont happen! Not really making a lot of sense to me!

Don't get me wrong I am BEYOND happy we are able to spend the night at home tonight; however, I DO NOT want to spend another night or morning in the ER because they did not think she was sick enough to keep overnight! Since when is 105 NOT a high temperature? I've been told all my life that 104 is dangerous but 105 is extremely dangerous, but now I'm being told no temperature is dangerous?

I guess this is why we get paranoid parents! We get told one thing by one physician and another thing by another physician. They can all go to school at the same exact medical school and still all come out saying totally different things!! Who do you listen to? And if you do just go by your parental instinct and decide they do need medical help...who is going to give that help if they think they aren't "sick enough?" Then you become a "paranoid parent" and you get the semi-laugh from the doctors because they think you are over-reacting? The last time I didn't overreact my daughter ended up coughing up blood!

So for now we are at home. Pumpkin has a fever of 103.7, Hobble-bobble 101.3, and Sweet-pea's is broken for now. We will have a visit to the pediatrician this afternoon and then hope we can do the rest of their medical care at home!

The longest week ever!

You would think that after the last two weeks we'd be beat down and can't go on. But that's not the case. We are happy, excited and looking forward to the calling that God has for us!! I'm about 80% sure that in the next 18 months God has some amazing things in store for our family, and I'm about 99% sure we are under a serious spiritual attack because of it.

Our attack has started off slow, something here and there, a few things at a time , but this week it has turned to catastrophe! Our week started out with Hobble-bobble jumping off a chair and fracturing her ankle. Right away it swelled up and we rushed her to the Ortho-on call Emergency care center. They put her in a boot and sent us to a pediatric-orthopedic doctor who did confirm she had a fracture and needed to be in her boot for another two weeks.

Saturday evening Little Bear (4yrs) came in and started complaining of a stomach ache and that she didn't feel well. She had a fever of 100.5 and so we canceled our plans, had her lay on the couch, and gave her some motrin, then she began vomiting and could not keep anything down. Around 3am that night her fever spiked to 104.7; I continued through the night trying to cool her down so we could wait till morning for a E.R. visit. I covered her with cool rags and gave her more motrin, and tried getting her to drink which was not successful! We ended up in the ER that morning and she tested positive for Strep. They gave her an antibiotic shot, a popsicle and sent her home with anti-nausea medicine. Once we were home we again could not get her to drink anything! Her fever continued as high as 103.7 and we continued monitoring her day and night trying to keep her drinking, cooled off and medicated.

Monday evening as I was just about to lay my head on the pillow and pass out after an exhausting weekend, I was awakened by Pumpkin (6) who was gasping for air as she barked a croupy cough. Normally, croup in our house is a normal thing. She is on singulair all winter long for it. Since our winter was pleasantly mild this year it was given occasionally when the weather changed. I could tell this time was different, as she struggled to suck in air I did our normal routine of sticking her head in the freezer, and when that didn't work sitting in a steaming bathroom. After watching her struggle for air 15 minutes (too long) I dressed her and rushed her to the ER. I was afraid to let her stop talking in the car, afraid she would stop breathing. Once we arrived I pulled her out and rushed across to the doors. Once inside her breathing slowed, and quieted and became fairly normal! I was so frustrated! After not sleeping the last two nights, being at the hospital again for no reason was not something I was happy about! Once we got back to the room, the doctor was quick and to the point (which I appreciated). She received a breathing treatment, and steroids for the next few days and we were sent home!

Wednesday morning, Little Bear woke up with a broken fever! She acted fairly well most of the morning then started to get bad again. By the time she went to bed she had her fever back up to at least 102 and was having severe abdominal pains below her belly and on her right side, and chest pain. We were worried it may be her appendix, or pneumonia! We called the on-call doctor and told them what was going on...they didn't have a whole lot of advice for us so we were left to decide what to do on our own. I spoke with a nurse friend on facebook who advised we should probably head to the ER- and again we did. This time they gave her an IV, ultrasound, blood work and tested her urine. The urine came back with blood in it which they said was a sign of dehydration, the ultrasound came back normal, and the blood tests came back normal! They gave her motrin to break her fever and sent us home after she ate a popsicle. On our way home I was exhausted! I wanted to doze off with every blink of my eyes but I was determined to get home! As I pulled out of the parking lot to head home, I began praying that God would protect us on our way home! I decided to go the long way home through town instead of taking the highway home which is shorter! I kept getting stuck in traffic and behind slow moving cars!! About three miles from home I began to hear a slight thumping and felt the steering wheel start to pull and vibrate. I thought I might have a flat tire but wasn't sure since it wasn't really loud, and not to mention I had never had one before. I called Nathan and told him I thought I had a flat, and then it began to get louder! I slowed my speed and since I was less than a mile from home, was tired, and had a sick kid...I kept going! I got home and was taken back by the sight of the blown out tire! It was busted open! My first thought was, "if I had gone on the high way, we would have really gotten hurt!" Then I started to pray and thank God for protecting us!

Thursday, as I checked out checking account I noticed a withdrawl from paypal for 300.00! Since I did not make that withdrawl I immediately started investigating it. As I thought my account was hacked but I was able to recover our 300.00! Little Bear's fever was around 101. She spent the day on the couch and was a little active but for the most part she was really sick. She still refused food and anything to drink including popsicles! After she went to bed she slept for about a half-hour; then she came running out of her room threw herself on the floor and started to vomit. We ran her into the bathroom and opened the toilet and she spewed blood! I immediately put on my clothes and shoes preparing to head to the ER as we awaited our on-call doctor to call us back. This time they called ahead to the ER and they said they would just admit us when we got there. Once we were there they started an IV, took more urine, took more blood and sent us upstairs to our room. They wore gloves and gowns anytime they came in the room, and they were great! The doctors were really nice and examined her from head to foot!! They discovered she didn't just have strep but she had tonsillitis as well! They believed the blood was from a tear in her esophagus from vomiting, or a result of not eating or drinking for so long and it caused acid build-up in her stomach.

Friday, she was taken down for an x-ray to rule out pneumonia. After having fluids overnight she was a totally different kid! She had her energy back and wanted to go home!! We stayed the majority of the day and evening to make sure she could keep down food and liquid then was released to go home around 8pm.

Saturday, I slept most of the day. My amazing husband knew how tired I was after our eventful week and took care of the kids most of the day. He woke me in the afternoon and told me that Sweet-pea had a slight fever of 99.9. She acted normal most of the day and we gave her motrin to help with her fever. At dinner she didn't eat much; we started baths afterwards and she began to shiver so badly when I undressed her she couldn't hardly talk. When I got her out she was shivering so much her lips turned blue! I waited a while and took her temperature and it was 104.0! I gave her some tylenol and sat with her on the couch for a few minutes before deciding to take her to Kidmed. I figured the earlier we could get antibiotics in her the easier it would be to avoid the hospital! When we got to kidmed she was lethargic and her cheeks were rosy. All she wanted to do was sleep, and would not let go of me! I sat in the waiting room for 45 minutes with her on my lap, after 20 minutes of waiting she vomited all over my shirt and pants! The lady at the desk called out to me that there are bags on the wall, but I was so filled with chunks of food, and Tylenol in my lap that there was no getting up unless she wanted to scrape it up off the floor. FINALLY she brought on over to me, but it was too late she already spewed it all over my lap! I took off her clothes down to the diaper and took her to the bathroom to clean her and me off! As I came out of the bathroom I held her in my arms pacing the floor trying to soothe her to sleep while the heat from her body baked my skin! I paced for about 15 minutes while listening and watching a nurse have a personal conversation with another patient sitting in the waiting room. Getting annoyed (and ready to leave for the ER), I asked the desk clerk how much longer before they could see her and she said, "about 1-2 more minutes." About a minute later the nurse who was having the conversation turned to me and said, "is this Sweet-pea, I'm out here for her...we were just chatting!" I was IRATE! Here I am covered with vomit, rocking my baby who had a 104 degree temp, and was miserable and she was "chatting!" We went back to the room and was seen by the doctor, they did a strep swab, flue swab, and x-ray. She was positive for pneumonia, and negative for everything else.

Once we established her diagnosis, I let the doctor know what I thought of her nurse , and then we continued with getting blood, pulse-ox, and they were planning to put in an IV. Two nurses came in; one was the same one that brought us back and then there was another who actually did the IV. They put the needle in but didn't have it attached to a tube, a her blood poured out all over the bed the nurse tried to screw the tube onto the end of the needle. She took some blood and as she went to put the tube of blood on the table she pulled the tube and the IV flew out of her hand onto the floor and blood squirted all over my face, the floor the bed! I was FURIOUS!! A few minutes later they came back in to retry, and I refused the IV! I told them if she needed it we would just go to the ER. The doctor came back in and said her blood work was slightly elevated, but that was expected for someone with her condition. They gave her a antibiotic shot and sent us home.

When we got home, we were welcomed by the site of Pumpkin laying on the couch with a fever of 101.7.

It is now 5:29 am on Sunday and I have yet to go to sleep! Because I wanted to keep an eye on them through the night I put the blow up mattress in the living room and Nathan slept on the couch and I in the chair. About 3:30 I finally finished my school work from last week and decided to check on them before I laid down. Sweet-pea's fever was back up to 103.7 and Pumpkin's was up to 101.7. I gave them both drinks, and motrin and before I knew it their fevers broke and now they are jumping around on the mattress watching veggie tales along with Hobble-bobble.

So at this point yes I am completely exhausted and I would be completely fine if I never saw a hospital or emergency care facility again in my life; however, my faith in the last few weeks has grown so much! I feel closer to God, closer to the girls, and closer to my husband. God has used all our trials for good this week! I love that I can look back and see his had working in our lives especially in the tough times! I found myself laughing a lot at everything. While it may be my way to keep from crying it still has been great for keeping light of each situation, and taking them one at a time!

So here is to hoping tomorrow brings us better heath, and no need for more emergency visits!!