A Very "Sickly" Christmas!

As I was getting ready to type this post I realized as I looked at the date that one year ago today Joel asked Jesus to be the "boss" of his life. It was such a testimony to me of God's faithfulness. I had asked the Lord at the beginning of 2007 for 2 main things - for Christian to be baptized and for Joel to be saved. Christian was baptized in May and then with only 3 days left in the year - Joel was saved. A true testament to the faithfulness of a loving God.

Now, here is our sad Christmas story. This Christmas has had a "different" feeling from the get go. I chalked it up to the fact that we moved 2 weeks before Christmas and I had not been able to really decorate and enjoy the season like years past. As I made my last trip to the Dollar Store on Christmas Eve I was beginning to get very excited. Christian was spending the night with my mom and dad and would arrive early Christmas morning with them. So Joel, Caleb and I anxiously awaited for Craig to get off work and come home. We had been planning to go look at Christmas lights as soon as he got home. As soon as he got here Joel came down the stairs an said his stomach hurt. I thought "oh no"! We had some guests at the house earlier in the week whose children had been sick with a stomach bug. I sent up a plea to the Lord that he would not get sick. We all loaded in Craig's car and headed out. About 30 minutes into seeing lights (10 minutes of which we spent getting gas) we had heard enough of Joel complaining about his stomach and headed home. We pulled up in the driveway, got out of the car, and Joel began vomiting. YUCK!

My next big dilemma was where to let him sleep. I didn't want him way upstairs with all of that carpet between us so I decided to make him a pallet in my bedroom with towels leading to my bathroom. He was so sick. He vomited or dry heaved EVERY 15 minutes from 8:30 pm until 6:45 am Christmas morning. As I came out of the bedroom to text my mom and dad that he was sick (remember Christian had spent the night with them and they always come over very early Christmas morning to be with the kids) I noticed I had a text. Curious I checked it first and it was from my dad at midnight. It said Christian & your mom vomiting. YIKES. I text back that Joel had been up sick all night and wondered what we needed to do.

Craig drove the 2 hour round trip drive to pick Christian up from my moms and around 11:00 am a very "subdue" group minus my mom and dad decided to open presents. We opened presents then Joel went to sleep, Christian went to sleep and I tried to sleep. It was not a very fun day. As we went to bed that night I asked the Lord to please let me have a full nights sleep after being up the previous night with Joel. I slept good until around 7:30 am when I got up and got sick. Craig came into the bedroom and informed me that he had been up all night sick. I was sick ALL day the day after Christmas. As I took my first sip of water around 7:15 pm that night Craig came in to tell me that Caleb was now vomiting. I thought well thank God he is at least the last one in this household who could get it.

We postponed our Christmas with my mom and dad, my brother and his family, my grandmother and my aunt until next Saturday so hopefully all was not lost. We will ALWAYS remember Christmas 2008!

Maybe New Year's will be better.