We have crossed over into the category of parents with a child who was sent to the hospital. In a weird way, I feel like I've conquered something great. The experience was not great at all, but we all survived and have grown and now KNOW we can trust God in scary hospital business because we experienced Him firsthand! Let me tell you the story....
Last Tuesday morning at 5:30am Mikaela came into our room, so I picked her up and snuggled her under the covers. I asked if she was okay, but she didn't say anything. I put my arm around her and felt her heart pounding WAY harder than normal and her breathing was very shallow and rapid. At first I thought she had a nightmare because I think it's this age (2 yrs. old) when they start remembering them and getting scared. After 5 minutes of laying there and thinking what in the world could be the matter, I woke up Kevin. We sat her up and gave her some juice. That's when she started crying and clinging to us. At about 6:30am Kevin called the on-call nurse who told us to call Mikaela's doctor and leave a message or take her to the ER. He called the office, but they didn't have an answering machine, so he decided to take her to the ER in Temple.
When they got there, her oxygen level was at 75% (it should be at 100% for a child) and her heart rate was 210 (it should be in the 100's). The medical staff swung into action fast because she was NOT doing well at all! They stuck an IV to rehydrate her and gave her two breathing treatments right away. She had chest x-rays taken, lots of stethoscope listening, and swabs up her nose to collect mucous. The doctor concluded it was viral bronchiolitis. Although each virus tested came back negative. They put her on antibiotics and an inhaler. My "mother gut" still thinks it was an asthma attack. The symptoms and treatment are the same and considering her history of eczema and allergies, asthma seems to fit right in.
Anyways, Kevin stayed with her the whole time, minus about 20 minutes when he ran out to get us Taco Bell for dinner. He was AMAZING with her. I sure wish I had a dad as loving and attentive as he is to Mikaela... and Keira for that matter :) He held her for hours and sang to her. When it was bedtime, he pushed the extra bed right next to hers and sang some more while holding her hand and playing with her hair until she fell asleep. Their relationship deepened. I stayed home with Keira... and watched the election... and prayed for my friend, Rachel who was in labor :) Kevin brought her home a little before noon on Wednesday. It's been almost a week and nothing similar has happened... praise God!!!!!
I praise God for protecting Mikaela.
I praise God for giving us wisdom and peace.
I priase God for how much He loves Mikaela.
I praise God for knitting Mikaela together perfectly.
All her little "medical issues" aren't issues in His eyes.
I praise God for life!
We spent most of last week in Dallas at a conference called Acts29 Bootcamp. It was VERY eye-opening and gave us more direction about church-planting. Anyways, even though the conference was great and maybe even life-changing, this blog isn't about that. Instead, it's about our garbage can. We left it outside while we were gone and a day after we came back it went missing. It's hard to believe that someone would steal a garbage can. Although, we DO live in Killeen and weird things like that ocassionally happen :) After searching down the street, I called the City of Killeen Utilities services. They told me in order to get a new one free of charge I would need to call the Police Department and file a claim for my missing/stolen trash can. I asked in a jokingly/polite manner if she was serious. She was. So, I called the Police Department and told them about my missing trash can. When I was telling Kevin about it he asked if I dialed 911. Hehe, that would have been funny! Anyways, the police officer was rather serious about the incident. He gathered all the known information (it was there one day and gone the next) and filed a claim against the City of Killeen for my missing trash can. A new one was delivered today right before the garbage man came :) It's kinda nice having a brand new, non-stinky trash can.
