Oh What A Week!

This week has been a rough one.  It all started with Enoch, Mason and Jordan who have had a cough that just doesn't want to quit, and have all been coughing so hard, they've thrown up several times.  Then, Enoch added to that an earache that turned into a double ear infection, which resulted in a miserable boy with a ruptured eardrum and an ear that has oozed for several days.  Also, Jordan, who has had wheezing issues in the past, was having a harder than normal time breathing, and ended up at the insta-care on Thursday night.  After responding well to a breathing treatment, the doctor suspects Jordan may have asthma, something his caretakers in China told us he might have, but I had hoped was just an anxiety response that was slowly going away.  Friday and Saturday, Mason and Jordan kicked the vomiting up a notch and both came down with fevers.  (I hate fevers)  I'm still not sure if they have a stomach bug, in addition to the cough, or if the cough has just come back with a vengeance.  But, any time they throw up, it's nerve racking for me because they both have the potential to have a hypoglycemic episode if they don't keep food down for very long, and that means a trip to the ER, which we really try our best to avoid and have actually been pretty good at doing.  Just when it seemed like everything was starting to calm down, Mason started throwing up again and Jordan had another wheezy spell, but this time, a breathing treatment at home wasn't able to help him.  So we broke down and Ryan took Jordan to the ER.  Where they are now.  Hopefully helping Jordan breath a little easier and figuring things out.

Amidst all of this craziness, I'm reading "North and South" by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, and loving it.  One line, in particular keeps coming back to me... "Looking back upon the year's accumulated heap of troubles, Margaret wondered how they had been borne.  If she could have anticipated them, how she would have shrunk away and hid herself from the coming time!  And yet, day by day had, of itself, and by itself, been very endurable - small, keen, bright little spots of positive enjoyment having come sparkling in the very middle of sorrows."

This is so true to life in general.  I doubt many of us would happily agree to take on our challenges, and once we get through them we may wonder,  "How?" But little bits of happiness sprinkled throughout every day, are exactly what get us through.

Even when they are sick, these kids of mine provide "keen, bright little spots of positive enjoyment".  

Exhausted, Jordan passed out on the floor.  He sweetness overwhelms me.

This guy has thrown up in his bed, on the couch, on the carpet, on a rug, and on the garage floor.  Pretty much everywhere except the toilet.  For such a little thing, he can make some big messes and I am sick to death of cleaning them up.  But his smile makes up for all of it.  Oh how I love him!

Now to be really honest.  I have to admit there are moments when I think, "What are we doing, adopting Hallie?  We already have so much on our plate and life would be so much easier if we didn't add her medical issues, possible emotional issues, and the financial burden of another adoption to everything we're already dealing with."  But I know that even if I am tempted to "hide myself from the coming troubles" that the joy she'll bring into our home will get us through.  And I am excited to meet her, get to know her, and to love her.