A few weeks ago, our son Foster was under the weather. Nothing terrible or wildly concerning. Just an unusually high temp and small cough. We did all the tests and everything came back negative. Most days he would act totally fine, but then get worn down and still have a fever. Fortunately it was a holiday weekend, so he didn’t miss as much school, but he had still been home, sick for almost a full week. Rotating fever reducers, giving him electrolyte filled drinks with soups and orange juice. Every time we’d take his temp, it was constantly bouncing around in the 100’s. As a parent, you start to wonder…am I doing something wrong?
Will our life ever get back to a normal rhythm?
Will we be making soups and orange juice for this kid forever?
Over the past few weeks we had a house full of family, kids were off school, we had extra worship services with Christmas Eve, and less of our “normal” schedule.
One of those days I got up early to spend some quiet time praying, reading, working, and writing.
As soon as I got up, this miracle of a dog named Brittany followed me.
She followed me as I snuck out of the bedroom.
She followed me as I prepared coffee.
She rang the bell and wanted to go out.
She then barked because she wanted back in.
She kept wandering to our bedroom door trying to get in to lay down with Sarah.
She figured out how to open the door, hopped up on the bed and started to wake Sarah up. I ran in, tried to pull Brittany out, and now I am on dog watch the rest of the morning.
I’m not sure what your house is like this week, but mine has been filled with family and desserts and presents and keeping little boys busy. It’s been a week of rest and celebration. We’ve taken a deep breath, we’ve done some fun stuff as a family, and we are closing out 2023 being thankful for so many things.
Another year over and a new one just about to begin.
If you were at worship yesterday, I shared that Sarah’s Aunt and Uncle send Advent gifts every year to hang on a homemade calendar that we proudly display in our house. Each year Sarah’s Aunt Linda and Uncle John send these gifts that we tie to each one of the corresponding numbers, we video our kids opening the gifts, and send the videos to Aunt Linda and Uncle John. It’s a really fun thing to go back through our phone to the same date in previous years and see how much our boys have changed, see how different Sarah and my ever changing hair is, and all the different places we’ve lived in the past 11 years.
