Greetings from Vomit Central

Well, I got hit with the plague on Sunday morning. Since Jake was at accountability when I got sick, my friend Sherie came and got Mackenzie for me and took her to church. Andrew and Amy held her for worship while Jake set up Sunday School. My mom pinched-hit for me in Sunday School and then it sounds like Mackenzie was passed to every member of my family after church so Jake could collect her things and give my mom the stuff I had made to take to my mommom's that afternoon. (unfortunetly, we didn't get to see the Small side of the family for Christmas this year. We had post-poned it till Jan. 11th, but I couldn't get off the couch without dying!) I was so blessed knowing that Mackenzie would be taken care of no matter who she was with and blessed to have the house quite for a few hours so I could sleep. When they got home, they both took really good care of me. Jake got me everything I needed and Mackenzie would come over and put her head on my arm, but she understood mommy didn't feel good. It really was a 24 hr. thing though, my mom was going to come get her early Monday morning b/c I thought there was no way I could care for her feeling like I did, but I felt almost 100% when I woke up, so I got to keep her! I kept praying and praying she wouldn't get it... but... that wasn't God's plan. She threw up just a little bit in the store yesterday and I thought I was just being paranoid and it was nothing b/c she was acting fine, but when we got home it turned into a huge something!! I'll spare you the details, but it was gross! I am so grateful that my first experience with baby vomit happened the way it did. Jake was home so he was able to handle clean up detail (barely, apparently daddy's don't have the same stomach for sick kids that mommy's do!) and get me all the cloth diapers and towels I needed and Mackenzie and I just cuddled together and she got sick almost every 10 mins. for 2 hrs. straight... then it tapered off and it was finally over in 3 hrs. She just laid in my arms and moaned. It was SO sad! But she went to bed and slept through the night and has been acting like herself all morning. She's only allowed to drink pedialyte and eat small pieces of bread and crackers today, but she's managing ok so far. She's down for her normal nap and I can't believe that she's acting better so quickly! She is a trooper, that's for sure... much more so than her mommy was! I am grateful that if she was going to get it, that she got it before we went on the marriage retreat. And I am so grateful to live in this country and in this century where there is so much we can do for little ones when they are sick! I was crying thinking about mom's in other nations that have to watch their children suffer, and here I have a pediatrician just a phone call away and a pharmacy down the street! And I'm so grateful she got it before Aubrey was born... I can't imagine having a throwing up child and a nursing infant at the same time... but I know God's grace would be sufficient if it happened.

Today in my devotions I read from Spurgeon's "Beside Still Waters" and it really encouraged me for the task I faced today (you should see the mountain of laundry staring at me!)"We have great demands, but Christ has great supplies... Do you sometimes feel so thirsty for grace that you could drink the Jordan dry? More than a river could hold is given to you, so drink abundantly, for Christ has prepared a bottomless sea of grace to fill you with all the fullness of God. Do not be frugal. Do not doubt your Savior. Do not limit the Holy One of Isreal. Be great in your experience of His all-sufficiency. Be great in your praises of His bounty, and in heaven you will pour great treasures of gratitude at His feet."

I know my greatest need for grace has been met, my sins are forgiven! How will my God, who has forgiven me the greatest debt ever owed, not also supply me with all the energy I need for laundry and all the patience I need for a sick child? Yesterday when I was being vomited on every other minute, His grace was totally sufficient for me. Today when I tackle the laundry and try to keep up with the crumbs from her crackers, His grace is totally sufficient. And even if the laundry remains at the end of the day, and crumbs are still scattered all over the floor, I stand forgiven before my Savior and that indeed is all that matters! I am so thankful for His amazing grace!