Richly Blessed

Date night was cancelled the second to last week of September and we opted to do a Family Movie Night with a camp-in for the boys afterwards.
It was a total hit! I felt like I was really going out on a limb when I picked the old Swiss Family Robinson for our movie. The boys looked at the cover and promptly told me that they hated that and didn't want to watch it. I pretty much told them tough cookies but then explained it was about a family that was shipwrecked and found lots of animals, built a tree house and had to fight pirates! What little boy can refuse pirates?

There was a bit of a slow part in the middle but the pirate (and tiger!) part made up for it. My heart melted when Noah covered his eyes in order to not see the tiger get the baby elephant. (Which he doesn't!) Family Movie Night is now an oft requested activity but I haven't found another movie that quite does the job that the Robinson Family did!

***

The last week of September was rough. Chris came home from church and bishoping complaining about not feeling well. By the next morning his symptoms had reached a critical point. That evening a friends watched our kids while we went to urgent care.
He was really bad off. His blood pressure was really low, he was dehydrated and had other really not good symptoms of an infection. In retrospect we should have gone (or been sent!) to the ER.

Live and learn we told ourselves.

He got an a couple of antibiotics and was sent home with orders to drink as much as possible to rehydrate. The next couple of days did not go as I had hoped. I was to fly off for a mommy vacation on Wednesday and ended up not going because Chris continued to have issues with his symptoms and drugs. Finally, by Saturday he was feeling more the thing.

After one week of feeling well, Chris came home from church and bishoping complaining about not feeling well. Monday evening his infection symptoms returned. He made an appointment to get in to see the doctor on Tuesday. They fit him in after hearing about his symptoms. Upon arrival he scared them all to death by almost passing out and having really low blood pressure once again and they called an ambulance to take him to the ER.

Apparently, I wasn't moving fast enough.

I got there as quick as I could and picked him up. We then got some lunch for the kids and took them to my dear, sweet friend's house before taking Chris to ER. He was evaluated in the triage room-all vitals normal. Then sat for a bit longer. I left to pick up and drop off Noah, take care of a church errand for Chris and then went back to the ER. He had been seen by the doctor and they took some blood for tests and agreed that there was definitely signs of infection and they wanted to admit him until they could tell what the infection was, thus allowing them to prescribe the correct antibiotic.

It took two days to get the culture results back.

In the meantime I finally picked up the kids and got them home to bed. Passed off some contact solution and Chris' glasses to another friend who ran them over to the hospital for me. Slept badly with my better half absent. Got Noah and Ian off to school the next morning and took Sage to visit daddy. Got there just in time to hear the doctor tell Chris that he would have to stay another night. Joy.
After picking Noah up from school that afternoon we picked up pizza and headed to the hospital to do dinner and movie with daddy. It was kinda a circus but the kids were reassured to see Chris looking and feeling well-even if he was wearing funny clothes and had a needle in his arm.
The results finally came back and he got sent home with orders to take his meds for 3 weeks!

It was rough but even as it was happening I could see the answered prayers and tender mercies.
For instance, on Monday night, Chris asked specifically in our prayer that his condition would not worsen in the night and that he would be able to make it to his appointment at the doctor's office. And he did. Just.

And really, the greatest blessing was our friends-helping with the kids, running to the hospital, bringing us dinner. The Lord does frequently answer prayers through the angels around you, and such it was with us.