It's not JUST a fever

No mom (or Dad) likes to have their baby sick. It twists your heart to see your little one in pain, not eating or drinking, crying all day long, not able to keep down medicine or cool off to less than 101 degrees, unable to sleep. That’s been my last 5 days. Maddy has had another scalding fever. 2 doctors visits later, lots of Tylenol, and finally a shot, I think Tristan and I are just as tired and exhausted as she is from doing everything we could do to make her healthy.

Children get sick all over the world. I know there is fever in the USA. But I don’t remember being afraid of having a fever or having my neighbors come and pray for me when I was little and sick.  I never could grasp when I read that in such and such a country every family has lost a member to sickness. Everyone in our community can tell me a story of a family member who has died of a simple sickness.

Fever is feared in Honduras. Children & adults alike die from a simple fever. I didn’t understand this before and now the reality of it has hit me. Hard. And I fear it. Of course a sick baby makes a parent feel sad and helpless, but honestly, I fight panic. There it is folks: fever, is one of my biggest fears.

Within the last year, Antonio, Tristan’s right hand man & lead contractor at El Ayudante, lost his nephew whom he was raising to a fever. Just days of fever, and this young boy died on the way to the hospital.  It changed my life forever.

(watch this video if you’d like to hear Antonio tell his story).  

                                               http://vimeo.com/70252920

What amazes me is the faith that families in poor countries must depend on. They don’t own thermometers, rarely have even a bottle of Tylenol in the house, much less a bulging medicine cabinet, and don’t have the $ to pay for a doctor every time their child gets sick. I know I can’t really relate to them, after all I can buy medicine & do have a thermometer, but I do respect and understand ‘fever’ like they do . When I talk with them, they all have a story of their own health at one point and how they were at the end of their rope and had to completely trust that their GOD could heal them, as that was their only choice. Their faith puts mine to shame.

God is teaching me to trust in him, to depend in him as the healer, and (I don’t want to say this because it’s hard) put my children in His hands, regardless. That is my neighbors only choice, and I'm learning that it has to be mine too.

Thanks for listening to the ramblings from an over tired and emotionally spent mom who is learning to live and understand the fears of my neighbors in a new way this year.